Chronicles of a Wanderer: The Brave Frontier
by Some Wandering Anon
Summary: It was supposed to be a simple mission: Find and investigate the source of the sudden appearance of an otherworldly anomaly. But it brought him deep into a rabbit hole, leading him into a world filled with things he has yet to understand. Just what exactly lies beyond the Gate? (Currently editing details on the work, for any inquiry feel free to PM me.)
1. Prologue: Visions

_Nothing else out of the ordinary here..._ A man dressed in a black coat continued to walk around the ruins of an old fort, looking for something. The whole time he felt something odd in the atmosphere, something that felt… unfamiliar. With dust flying all over the place and the sun from the windows being the only light source, it got progressively harder to survey the area. There was nothing of interest he could find on the main and upper floor. He proceeded to make his way downstairs. The feeling was getting stronger; he knew he was on the right track. He drew his revolver and pointed ahead of him as he slowly making his way down the stairs. There were no enemies throughout his investigation, but there was no reason to not keep a watchful eye out for possible ambushes. The cellar was dark, as expected, but he saw a faint glow coming from a corner. He slowly made his way into what looked to be a storage area; he slowly lowered his weapon and returned it to its holster after finding something odd.

"I found it." He spoke into an earpiece as he stepped forward to the odd structure.

"What can you tell me about the object?" Someone spoke on the other end.

"I'm getting energy readings from this structure. This has to be the source of the anomalous activity."

"Yes, I can see the charts, but what IS the object in question? I can't exactly see anything from my end." From his view, it was too dark, and the view was too blurry, the poor resolution of the screen made it difficult as to ascertain the situation. Then again it's in a cellar, so the signal is going to be weak anyway.

The man examined the structure. "It appears to be a gate."

"A gate?"

"Yeah." He paced around. The structure in question was a gate and an orange colored one at that. The gate itself had an arch-like structure, and it had some peculiar patterns to it. Unlike everything else he had seen, it stood out from its surroundings. It stood tall, free of scratches and dust, and it was glowing brightly despite sunlight having no way of lighting the area. Examining it more closely, it had a smooth texture, it had to be made of some kind of metal as there is no way to make something this smooth with rocks. He explained the details to the person on the other end of the line.

"Ah… Well, you could've explained its appearance in better detail so I could have visualized It." he chuckled.

"I'm not exactly an architect professor." The man responded in a serious tone. He walked up to it and placed his hand on the door. He immediately felt something course through his body, the same energy the gate was radiating made its way to him. The sudden feeling hit him hard, causing him to stumble back. "Whoa!"

"Everything alright?"

"Y-Yeah…" He responded. _What was that just now?_ He thought. He got up as he looked at the gate once more. Questions began to flood into his head as curiosity took over. _What is this gate? Where did it come from? More importantly, where does it go?_

The area began to rumble and boxes began to topple off of their shelves, countless objects dropped to the floor, adding more noise. As this was happening, the gate began to slowly open, that same energy he felt from it began to hit him like a gale-force wind. He kept his feet firmly planted on the ground so as to not to fly away. Inside, it was hard to tell what was in it as the view was obscured by a bright light.

"What's going on there? The readings are going off the charts!" The professor exclaimed.

"I don't know!"

Out of nowhere, a voice began to echo throughout the room.

 ** _James…_**

"Who's there?" Identify yourself!" The man shouted. There was no one he could find, all he could see was the gate. "Did you catch that?"

"Catch what? I didn't hear anything."

He clutched his head, trying to shake off that feeling. "I swear someone was calling out to me…"

The professor chuckled. "Really? You must be imagining things."

 _Was it all in my head? It has to be that gate._ "I'm going in to see what's on the other side."

"Hold on James! You're not properly equipped for an expedition yet!"

"I know. But, I need to examine this a little further. You needed more information about this anomaly right?"

"Yes but-" Their conversation was cut off by the sound of static. "James! Respond!" Nothing came out on the other end. "Blast! Not again." He slammed his hands on his desk. He sighed. "I may as well put some information together for evidence." He began to type on a separate computer as he put what little evidence he was able to gather.

…

Nothing.

There was nothing he could see but the color black. An empty void was the only thing that surrounded him. He couldn't feel or see anything. Not even himself.

 _What's_ _going on? Am I Dead?_ , He wondered. _No... It can't be._ He was floating amidst the void, there was no light to be found. His senses felt numb, he knows for a fact that he didn't die, so the only other possibility was that he was in some sort of dream or vision. If it was, then this was one weird dream.

Suddenly, a bright light began to shine in the distance, lighting up the darkness around him. A deep, booming voice was heard from the light.

"I am Lucius… God of the Gate…" The voice echoed throughout the empty space.

 _He recognized the voice as the one calling out to him from before. A God… what is going on?_

The voice continued.

"James… Beyond this gate a new source of power awaits you…"

The fact that the entity knew his name struck him as odd, and the sudden appearance caught James off guard. Before he could try to grasp the situation, four silhouettes formed in front of him, one red, yellow, blue and green. The supposed "God" said nothing else after that, leaving him to stare at the silhouettes _. Do I have to choose from these four?_ He wondered. _I guess I have no choice…_

He looked to the red one first. This looked like a male with spiky, wavy hair, wielding what appeared to be a great sword. The voice explained, "Believers of potential, with a passionate heart of fire."

He turned to the yellow next; it had wildly spiky hair, more so than the previous one. It wielded a form of broadsword. "Warriors of justice, with a strikingly honest heart of thunder."

Next was the blue figure. This one was female, with long flowing hair and what appeared to be a bow on her head. She wielded a long sword. "Seekers of the truth, with a crystal clear heart of water"

He faced the last figure, the green one. This was a male individual, like the previous ones he had spiky hair, but not wavy like the first one, nor was it wild like the second. He held a spear. "Bearers of hope, with a healing heart of earth."

Then there was silence. It was time to choose. He didn't know why, he simply had to pick one out of the four candidates. He looked to the red silhouette, he felt like he could somewhat relate to him, so he silently pointed to chose him.

The four silhouettes disappeared, and the voice returned once more. "Make that power yours, and use it to bring peace to this world… I have sent a guide who shall aid you on your quest…"

 _How did it know my name? What gate is he talking about? What's happening? Who is this "guide?"_

These thoughts were flooding his mind. He wanted to ask, but no voice came through. Before he could try to grasp the situation, the light began to shine even brighter, the once dark void filling up with blinding light. It was blinding, and he couldn't keep his eyes open. In an instant, everything became dark again, same as before.


	2. Chapter 1: Awakening and First Summon

"James…"

A voice pierced through the darkness, only it was barely audible. It sounded high pitched.

"James…"

The voice was clearer now, it sounded like a woman's voice. Was she trying to say his name?

 **"JAMES! WAKE UP ALREADY!"**

The voice was loud; it could have made him deaf. Luckily, it didn't, and it was enough to wake him up. He slowly opened his eyes, his vision was blurry. He began to stand, but his body felt weak, so he had to settle with kneeling. His vision slowly became clear, and he was able to make out plains of some sort, nothing but green grass and the blue sky around him. He began to look around to find of the source of the voice, only to find that someone was kneeling right beside him. The figure was a young woman unfamiliar to him, who looked to be around his age, if not older. Her hair and eyes were blue, like that of the morning sky. Her clothes were bright, the color white was dominant, but other colors, namely green, blue and pink, were also present. She faced the young man with a relieved look.

"Finally! I never thought you'd ever wake up!" She said.

Slowly, he began to stand up, as did she. He faced to the stranger beside him and asked, "Who… are you?"

The woman felt disappointed. "I'm your guide, can't you tell?! Didn't Lord Lucius tell you?" She whined.

Lucius… the God, the young man remembered that name in his dream, was she the guide he mentioned? She began to introduce herself.

"I am the Goddess Tilith; I have been assigned as your guide! It's a pleasure to meet you, James!" She said cheerfully.

She stared at the young man in front of him; He was dressed in full dark attire: A black trench coat, a suit, dress pants and shoes to match. The one thing that stood out from his clothes was that he was the snowy white scarf around his neck. He had messy silver hair that looked like it hasn't been cut in years, nearly covering his eyes. The only visible eye was his right, which was a dark blue color, but the left side of his face was covered with bandages and an eye patch. She could barely notice that his left hand too was wrapped in bandages. His overall appearance was very unsettling. _Is this the man really the one Lucius talked about?_ Tilith wondered. _He is in a complete mess! And looks WAY too scary!_

The man, who was named James, reluctantly extended his hand to shake hands with the Goddess but quickly halted before he could. "How do you know my name?" He asked.

"Why, Lord Lucius told me about you." She sounded a bit childish.

James began to look at his surroundings. "Where am I?" He wondered.

Tilith was shocked. "You don't know where you are? You are in Grand Gaia!" She said with great excitement.

James began to clutch his head with a look of confusion. How long was he asleep for? He had no idea where he was, or how he got here for that matter. He couldn't remember what he was doing before he came here. He was still feeling a little off from the sudden awakening. "I am not familiar with this place. And what is this quest did this "Lucius" fellow tell me about?"

Tilith sighed. "For someone who possesses the power to cross the Gate, you are clueless."

James sighed. "I'm sorry, but this is too much to take in. If it isn't too much of a problem, can you please explain to me what's going on?"

"Of course! Well you see-" She was interrupted by the sound of growing in the distance. "Wh- What is that?"

Ahead of the pair was a couple of moving round silhouettes in the distance. As they got closer, they revealed themselves to be a couple of green slimes.

"Look out! Monsters! Quick, summon your Units!" She shouted

James paused. He found it odd, and rather disappointing, that a Goddess such as herself was afraid of slimes, but then there was the other thing she said. Summoning, the art of calling and materializing a being through magic _._ He was aware of this techniques existence, but he was no summoner. He quickly explained his situation.

"You don't know how?!" She shouted again. "Just close your eyes and concentrate! Let your power do the rest."

He sighed. He closed his eyes and began to stretch his arm out. He closed his eyes as to calm himself, putting his mind into a meditative state. He didn't know the rites or the chanting required to perform a summon. _I guess I have to improvise this,_ He thought. He shouted, while maintaining his position "Be you man or monster, I call upon you to come to my aid and to assist me in defeating my enemies. Come forth!" As he finished his chant, a magic circle appeared underneath him, and another in front of him. He felt a surge of energy coursing throughout his body. A pillar of light began to shine and quickly disappeared.

Standing in front of him was another young man. He wore what appeared to be a red sleeveless uniform and a tattered cape; metal plating was on his waist and on his chest. He had spiky red hair and brown eyes, and in his hand was a great sword with a red hilt. He resembled the silhouette from his dream. He began to "Mossys, huh? Doesn't seem like a challenge, but this will be the perfect time to test my skill." He began to charge at the slimes, sword in hand and effortlessly cut them down. The slimes faded way shortly afterward. As this was happening, Tilith spoke with James.

"You didn't need to be so dramatic…" Tilith smirked, and then she looked at the newly summoned unit and was surprised. "How did you manage to summon Fencer Vargas!?" She asked. Vargas, so that was the warrior's name. He didn't think it would work, but it did. As far as James was concerned, he never was able to summon anything until now. Could this be the "new source of power" the Gate God mentioned?

He had no idea how to respond. _Did I do well in my first summon? The fact that she was shocked to know that I summoned this warrior showed that he was something special, is he?"_ He was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't notice that Vargas was still fighting with the slimes, which kept coming as he slain each one. He was slowly growing tired as the fight progressed. The red-haired warrior eventually collapsed with exhaustion. Tilith began to grow concerned. "He won't make it!" She cried. One of the slimes began to leap in the air, getting ready to pounce from behind on the downed unit. _Damn._ James thought. _What am I doing, standing around like this? I have to do something or he'll die. I guess I have no choice._

"James, do someth-" At that moment he ran right past her. He moved so suddenly that she barely had the time to react. Just as the slime was to make contact, it was quickly cut down in mid air. James stood behind Vargas, in his hands was a great sword of his own, it shone brightly as the sun's rays were reflected off of the blade. The blade itself was very long, almost as if it was as long as James height. It was surprising he was quick enough to bring out a sword that size and be able to swing it all in one fell swoop. The way it suddenly appeared out of nowhere showed that it had some magical property. "Are you alright? Can you stand?" James was already in a fighting stance, carrying his massive sword with both hands.

"Yeah, just fine." Vargas quickly stood up. "What are you doing?"

His tone of voice changed to a more serious one. "Summoned unit or not, I can't just sit idly by as someone fights by themselves, especially for me. I can't forgive myself if I did." He stared at the slimes. "You take the ones on the left, and I'll take the ones on the right. Is that okay?"

Vargas nodded "Sounds like a plan!" He responded eagerly.

The two swordsmen began to charge at the slimes, quickly cutting them down with great skill. Vargas swung his sword with speed and power, James fought just as aggressively, mixing fast and heavy swings with kicks and punches when he had the chance. They were all defeated in no time, but a few remained. There were a couple more slimes, in addition to one more. This slime was different with the rest; this one was larger than the other slimes and had a crown on top of its head. What was peculiar about this slime was that the moss on its body seemed to form a mustache on its face. Despite its odd appearance, he could feel more power radiating from it; for sure this one was much stronger than the others.

Tilith shouted from a distance, "This one's tough! I'll help!" She closed her eyes and folded her hands as if she was praying. She quietly spoke. "Bless me calm light…"Light began to envelop her, it felt warm. Then she quickly shouted, "BATTLE CRYSTAL KISS!" at once, the light dispersed and began to surround Vargas, blue crystals began to form and were absorbed by him. Tilith shouted again. "James! Tell Vargas to use his brave burst!"

James quickly faced to her with a look of confusion. "His what?"

"Think of it as a special attack. Use it now!"

James faced Vargas and gave him a quick nod and took a few steps back. Vargas closed his eyes to concentrate and a fiery aura began to surround him. He then shouted, "FLARE RIDE!" and jumped into the air, simultaneously swinging his sword in an uppercut motion. As he did, fire rose from the ground, and shot up like geysers, the remaining slimes were engulfed by the flames. James watched this at a distance, filled with intrigue, the sight was something new to him. As the last of the flames from Vargas' attack vanished, the once-grassy field in front of him was charred, small embers still rose from the burnt ground.

"That's some skill." James said as he walked up to him. His blade, as quickly as it came, disappeared in a quick flash of light.

"Thanks. You're not so bad yourself." Vargas replied between pants.

Tilith began to run up to James and tackle hugged him from behind. "That was amazing! You did better than I hoped you would. And you were quite the fighter."

"You should have done a better background check then. Fighting up close and personal is my specialty." James responded.

"Okay then. Well, I'm going to go; I'll meet you up ahead." Tilith said. "Oh, by the way. Take these. I was going to give them to you earlier, but you rushed in before I could." She tossed a small satchel, containing 10 green bottles.

"What are these?" James asked

"Cures! They'll help heal your units!" She yelled as she ran off.

"Hey, wait!" But she was gone. James sighed. _What an odd Goddess…_ he thought. _Was she expecting me to walk all the way to wherever she is? Is this another test?_

James gave one of the bottles to Vargas, whose injuries went away completely after he drank it. James then looked ahead to the direction where Tilith ran off. He stared into the distance and let out a sigh. _What did I just get myself into?_ He wondered. Just what kind of rabbit hole did he get himself into? That gate from before definitely had something to do with it. He put his hand to his earpiece as he tried to call again. "Hey, anyone there?" He was only met with static. "Damn it." he cursed under his breath.

Vargas looked to his summoner with a confused expression. "what are you doing?"

James sighed. "Nothing, it seems." _No reception... How am I supposed to contact anyone?_ he placed his hands into his coat pockets, unfortunately ,they were empty. He checked his pants pockets next, nothing there either. _Crap... I forgot my phone again..._ He sighed once more and kept his hands in his pockets, so as not to look any more foolish in front of his new companion. What a predicament was in, tossed into a different world entirely with no supplies or means of contacting the professor. He began to regret his reckless decision, but for now, he would have to bear with it. If there was anything of interest he could find here, he would have to record it to make a report.

"What's the plan then?" Vargas asked, breaking his concentration.

"Guess we'll have to walk to the rendezvous point." James replied.

"I don't know what that means, but okay." The two began to walk throughout the plains, there was nothing but green grass as far as the eyes can see. After a while, they spotted something in the distance. As the pair got closer, they stumbled across a gate-like structure. This struck as familiar to James, as the appearance looked exactly like the gate he saw before being transported to Grand Gaia. The gate slowly began to open, although it was not as disruptive as before. All they could see beyond the opening was an empty black void, there were no signs as to where it would lead to.

"Do you have a clue where this goes?" Vargas asked his summoner.

"I honestly have no clue." James replied. "But it looks like we have to enter."

"Are you sure about that?"

"Does it look like its opening up for anyone else right now?"

"Good point."

The two reluctantly entered the gate, with James taking the lead. They both disappeared into the darkness and the gate slowly closed behind them. Whether James knows it or not, the journey has just begun.


	3. Chapter 2: The Village and Second Summon

After crossing the gate, the two stepped out to be greeted by a dirt trail. The way they were able to travel from one place to another using this gate felt as simple as walking through any other door. Curious as to where the trail might lead to, they began to follow it to see where it would lead. Up ahead, they could see a small village up ahead. The town was very small, containing a small farm and three houses, one next to the farm and two across the river. There was a river that flowed through the town; the water was sparkling and clear, it split off into two different paths, one to a nearby pond, and one leading to the forest behind the two houses. There was a tree across the river; next to it was a small hut with what appeared to be a music note as the sign, and a small mountain next to the farm. Beyond the forest was what appeared to be a mountain range. The entrance leading into the town was a well made wooden archway. This was fortunate, as Vargas needed some rest and James needed more time to assess the situation, this was the perfect chance to relax for a bit. With the small number of buildings in the village, however, James was beginning to wonder whether or not any people lived here.

As they began to walk into the town, he noticed someone lying down next to a tree. He had blue hair and was dressed in white armor, halberd in hand. The man seemed to be writhing in pain. James rushed up and knelt down beside him.

"Hey?! Are you okay?" he asked.

The man could only groan in response. James grabbed him and brought him next to the tree, keeping him upright. He appeared to have a fever and was coughing frequently. _Poison,_ he thought. James glanced over at the man's left hand, which held a small purple nut.

"This… and the water…" He spoke weakly. He pointed to the nearby river. "You can make an antidote with these. Please…" He also pointed to one of the nearby houses. "Synthesis… Go there." He coughed. He didn't have much time.

James nodded. "Vargas, stay with him, I'll create the antidote."

"Okay."

James rushed to the river, picking up a small bucket on the way. He filled the bucket with water and went straight to the small house. A small cauldron was found in the corner; he dropped the ingredients and started the process. With little time at all, the antidote was finished. He grabbed the blue bottle and rushed back to the tree where Vargas was waiting.

"Hurry, He's gonna-"

James cut him off. "He won't."

He opened the blue bottle and man began to drink from it. He stopped coughing, but he was still in bad shape. Then he realized that he still had the nine cures from Tilith, he wasn't sure if it would work on anything other than units, but he had to try, as he had no medical equipment or skill in healing magic. He gave one of the bottles to the individual, and just like what happened with Vargas, his strength returned. He sprang back up.

"Thanks! You're a life saver. I'd be a goner if you didn't show up." The blue haired man said with relief.

"Don't mention it" James replied. "I hate to see someone die."

The man took a quick glance at his savior. "With those clothes, I thought you'd kill me or just leave me to die." Karl said after chuckling nervously.

James scratched his head. He had already had similar critiques countless times before, but fortunately he grew accustomed to it. "Good thing you're wrong then." The two then shook hands.

"What's your name?" The man asked.

"My name is James"

"Karl, it's pleasure to meet you. Say, you're not from around here, are you?"

James wanted to tell him of the experiences he just had, his meeting with Lucius and Tilith, but he chose not to. He doubts that Karl wouldn't believe him. "I'm not really sure how I got here."

"If you're here, then there must be a reason."

James just stood silently for a few seconds before asking. "Where exactly am I?"

Karl gave him a strange look before chuckling. "Well, in case you accidentally hit your head somewhere, we're in Elgaia."

Elgaia, another name that he did not recognize. But wanting to seem like he didn't stand out, he simply nodded his head.

"And this is the Village of the Venturer. Summoners come here to replenish their items through synthesis. You seem to know how it's done. They also craft spheres here."

James scratched his head. "Spheres?

He pointed to the house across the river. "They're made there. Think of them as equipment to units; each one has a different effect depending on the sphere itself. Crafting them is like synthesis, quick and simple."

"I see. That's useful. What about the house next to it?"

"It's not really used for anything, but you're welcome to stay there for some rest. The small hut over there is also perfect if you like music. There are books that contain information regarding items and spheres, so if you want to know how they work, check them out."

"I'll be sure to do that." _This is all new to me._ He thought. _The way this place works is different, I might as well get used to it._ After a few seconds of awkward silence, Karl then broke the silence. "Hey, you're a summoner, right?" He asked.

"Yeah. I guess you can call me that."James responded.

Karl glanced over to Vargas. "That's pretty impressive how you're able to summon him."

"I guess so." He scratched his head nervously.

"Well, if you plan to get anywhere in Grand Gaia, you're going to need some strong units by your side. Vargas is not enough." Karl then fiddled around in his pocket to pull out five shiny gems that shone with every color. He handed them over to James. "These are the treasures of Grand Gaia. They'll help in summoning very strong units. All you need is to concentrate and they'll do the rest. Let's go find a quiet place to do this. I'll watch".

Karl led James and Vargas walked back to the plains in order to show them how it's done. "Just stretch out your hand, concentrate and let the gems do the rest." James did as he was instructed. The gems began to float off his hand and began to arrange themselves in a circle in mid-air. The power that he felt coursing through him was stronger than before. The gems came together and formed a gold gate-like structure "Now tap it." Reluctantly, he did.

A large crack began to form on the gate. "Is it supposed to do that?" wondered James.

Karl chuckled. "It's been doing that a lot recently, it means that you have a better chance of getting a stronger unit. You're pretty lucky."

The gate then burst, and the once gold gate became red. Once more James tapped the gate, and the gate swung open with great force, knocking him back. He began to stand up as a bright red light emerged from the opening, and a figure began to emerge from the gate.

…

A Figure walked out from the gate, but it was hard to see as the light was still too blinding. As the light began to disappear, the figure became more visible. He heard a male voice coming from its direction. "You want me to lend a hand? Even when I look like this?" He said with a condescending tone. "Hmph, you're an interesting one." James looked at his newly summoned unit and was surprised. The unit was an older human male who wore purple armor decorated with gold spikes. His shoulder guards looked reminiscent to that of a samurai's, albeit with more spikes. aThe matching colored breastplate he had on exposed his muscular chest. His silver hair was smooth yet wild, and he held a rather large katana. What surprised him the most were the four jet-black wings on his back. Most people would find this scary, but not to him, though he had a different reason. _There is something about this man that gives off a familiar aura. Was it pure coincidence that I summoned this unit?_ James thought. He walked up to him, remaining calm as he asked. "Mind if you introduced yourself?"

The unit gave James a suspicious look. "What? Am I your prisoner now?" He brought his sword up and went into a fighting stance. "'Cause I hate to be someone's lap dog."

"If you were, I wouldn't have asked your name. That and I would have been more forceful to make you obey me."

The unit scoffed, "That's what they all say. How can I trust you?"

"How about we just start off with you telling me your name and I will do the same." James said calmly.

"Fine. My name's Ardin." He spoke.

"My name is James, and the two behind me are Vargas, another unit, and Karl, a friend. Please don't think of this as a Master-Servant relationship, think of us as comrades. I promise I won't be too demanding of you or make you do things you don't want to do. I swear on my life."

Ardin scoffed again. "You use some fancy talk there. Are you absolutely sure?"

James expression became a little more serious. "I have been through so many things in my life to know that using others for selfish means is wrong. If you're still suspicious of me, kill me right now."

Vargas and Karl gasped. "Are you crazy?" They both shouted.

James remained unfazed. "You heard me. You can kill me right here, right now. I wouldn't mind."

Ardin silently stood still for a moment, rather surprised on his summoners approach. _This guy's asking for a death wish._ He thought "That's pretty bold coming from someone like you. You seem so welcome to death."

James said nothing, as he was waiting for Ardin to strike. With breakneck speed, Ardin rushed up to him, who only stood arms raised. He stops at the last possible second, his sword cut a bit of James' neck. A small drop of blood trickled down his neck. His expression remained serious.

Ardin's eyes widened with surprise. "Not even a flinch. You're very serious about this, aren't you?"

"I did not just go through the whole summoning process or doing this for nothing. The quicker we get acquainted, the better."

Ardin finally puts his sword back into its sheath. "Not many people can pull that type of stunt and goes through with it." He then placed his sword back into its sheath. "You impress me. Alright, I'll follow you. But let me be clear on one thing, I am no one's slave. If you force me to do something, I'll cut your head clean off."

"I'll be sure to keep that in mind." He rubbed the small cut on his neck, noticing the small drop of blood.

Karl walked up to James. "That was crazy." He chuckled. "Can you do me a favor and not do that again? You scared me for a bit."

"Sorry about that." James apologized. I tend to be a little... extreme, I guess."

"Well. Now that that's out of the way, let me tell you about how units are."

James looked back to Vargas and Ardin. "I have to talk with him, how about you two chat for a bit?" As Karl talked with James on the basics of units, Vargas and Ardin had a conversation.

"Vargas, right?"

"Yep. What is it?"

"How's he in a fight?"

Vargas turned to James, who was listening to Karl, jotting down notes ranging from a units rarity to their elements. "He's actually very good. He doesn't look like he's new to swordplay; he must be experienced in it, more so than any knight I know."

Ardin was interested. "Really… I'd like to see him for myself"

Vargas chuckled. "Oh, you'll see. It'll happen much more quickly than you think."

A thought popped into his head. "Huh. If he's good, why would he bother to go through summoning us? If he is as good as you say he could have easily survived on his own."

Vargas paused for a moment and shrugged. "I honestly don't know. Why not ask him yourself?"

"Why don't you do it?"

"He doesn't look like the guy who wants to hear a lot of pointless questions to, but what do I know?" Vargas began to stretch "It feels nice to fight again, but most of my memories are a blur."

Ardin took a few moments to try to remember anything about himself, but all he could get was bits of his past; nothing else, not even the moments leading to his death. "Damn. I can't remember anything as well. What can you remember?"

Vargas took a few moments to remember what little he can. "I was just a knight. I looked up to my father, a knight in the order of Agni. I always wanted to be like him, but I was inexperienced. So I trained."

Ardin stood silent for a moment. "You're lucky to have parents. I don't remember much, but I think my parents abandoned me. It was due to these stupid wings…" he muttered the last sentence.

"That must have been tough for you."

"Not really, I was raised by some old man. He taught me how to use a sword. It was pretty fun. It's better than dying in a forest." He showed his katana to Vargas, it was radiating with dark energy. "According to him, this thing's from another world, I don't know much about it, but it's pretty strong."

"That's cool." Vargas showed his great sword. "Mine's nothing special, I think, but it once belonged to my dad."

At that point, James was finished with his conversation with Karl and was walking back to the two units. "I think we rested for long enough. It's time to get going." He faced back to Karl. "Thanks for the generosity, I can't thank you enough."

Karl smiled "No problem, I hope you find what you're looking for."

"Thank you." James turned to his units. "Aright, let's move out!" After waving goodbye to Karl, the group set off back to the trail leading to the gate. Upon reaching it, Ardin looked at the structure with a dubious expression. "Is this safe?"

"We came through there, so there's nothing to worry about."

"If you say so..."

The Gate slowly opened up, nothing but a black void can be seen through the opening. "I'll go first." James then stepped into the gate, instantly disappearing. The two units followed shortly after. They then exited out through another gate, arriving back at the plains.


	4. Chapter 3: Plains and Preparation

Tilith was agitated. She was quickly tapping her feet impatiently and looked around for James. _What's taking him so long? He can't be that slow... Or maybe he's fighting against monsters. He doesn't look like he can have any problem with them, but…_ She then spotted James alongside with his two units walking nearby. "Hey! Over here!" She shouted while frantically waving her arms, trying to get their attention. The company turned to face her and began walking towards her.

She whined, "What took you so long?! Do you know how long I've waited here? It was boring!" She was ranting like a toddler, an attitude rather unfitting to a Goddess. Everyone did their best trying not to laugh or snicker.

James did a slight bow. "I'm sorry. I just got caught up with some… things."

Tilith sighed. "You didn't need to be so formal. Eh?" She faced to the black winged individual. "You summoned another unit?! Already?"

James scratched his head. "I did say I was caught up with some things."

Tilith nodded. "Well, that will make your journey easier. Having strong units is essential, but it's also important to fuse them."

"Fuse?" he inquired.

"It's when you strengthen units with other units to make them stronger. Once they're strong enough, they can evolve with specific units and become even stronger." Tilith explained.

 _To strengthen one by sacrificing another…_ James began to have doubts. _I can't say it is the best plan. But if it's necessary, I have to try, though I'll hate myself for it…But still, is it truly right to do such a process? Is there no other way to make them stronger?_

"Hey! Are you alright?" She shouted at his face.

He snapped out of his trance. "Sorry." He said.

She giggled. "You really do like to space out, don't you?"

"Sorry..." His head was down.

"Don't be so down. We have yet to begin this journey. You're not giving up early, are you?" She said, trying to cheer him up.

He shook his head. "No."

"Then we have to cross this plain first. We don't have the time to mope around, you know."

"Right. By the way, how many units can I have with me?" He inquired.

"Summoners can have a limitless amount of units at their disposal, but you can only bring six in battle. The reason is that there is only so much a parson can take, and using too much of your power will wear you out faster."

"I see. Okay, let's move."

And so the party began their trek through the Adventurers Prairie, slaying whatever monster got in the way. It seemed very easy; then again it was only the start of their journey. Most of the enemies were slimes that ranged in different colors, but new enemies began to appear, such as harpies, goblins, mermen and mandragoras. As each enemy was defeated, they faded away, dropping blue crystals similar to the ones that were made from Tiliths magic.

Ardin observed James' fighting style from a distance while fighting off some enemies, he was impressed. "You really know how to fight, do you?" He asked while blocking a couple of harpies' thunder attacks.

"Yeah." He responded while sidestepping to dodge a merman's spear. He kicked the spear out of its hands and stabbed it with his great sword. "We must keep moving forward." He said.

Ardin smirked "These guys are child's play." He scoffed. "This is starting to bore me."

"You and me both..." James replied.

One by one, enemies fell, and the group kept moving through the plains. After a while, a cave was in sight, but in the way were two large slimes. They were both large and wore crowns, much like the green one from before, but these two were different. One was white and it had numerous glowing orbs around it, staring at it was difficult due to the brightness that came from it. The other one was dark purple, it wore a scowl on its face, and it had two bat wings on its side, but due to its size, they couldn't help it fly.

James turned to face Ardin. "You're up. Let's see what you can do." James took a few steps back.

"Fine. I'll end it here." Ardin closed his eyes and began to concentrate. His body and his sword were enveloped in dark energy. "Plum Scent" He whispered. With blinding speed he rushed at the two large slimes and swung his sword with quick rapid slashes, shock waves formed with every swing. As this was happening, a purple hexagram formed and expanded underneath the slimes, and a strange purple light shone over the party. It felt warm, but it felt odd, almost like there was some feeling of negativity that can be felt from this light.

Vargas, Ardin and James, were surrounded with a faint white glow, but at the same time black-purple electricity crackled occasionally on their bodies. "What's going on?" Vargas wondered.

"You can do light and dark attacks now, but for only a short while." Ardin replied.

"Awesome!" Vargas shouted.

James nodded. _A technique that allows others to use the light and dark element? I'm beginning to think this summon was TOO coincidental._ "That's impressive. Vargas! Ardin! It's time to deal the killing blow!" He shouted.

The trio charged at the two slimes, who were at this point very exhausted due to Ardins Brave Burst. They faded away shortly after being cut down. In addition to dropping battle crystals, they also dropped strange blue orbs, which were quickly absorbed by James. _What were those blue orbs?_ He wondered.

Tilith ran up to the group to congratulate them. "You guys were awesome! You just may be able to handle this after all!" She began to run ahead of the group. "I'll meet you up at the cave. Take your time to prepare yourself. Don't take too long though." She ran off into the caves entrance and disappeared as she went inside.

James uttered a small chuckle. "What a strange Goddess…" He then began thinking to himself. _She's right, i do need to prepare. I can't go on a journey without some supplies, especially in a world I don't even know…_

"What next?" Ardin asked.

"We need to prepare. We need to be ready before we actually start our journey." The trio began to make their way back to the Village of the Venturer.

After repeating the process of locating and crossing the gate, they found themselves by the trail leading to the village again. Upon entering the village they see Karl again, who slung his halberd over his shoulder as he stood underneath the wooden arch. "Hey!" He shouted.

"Hey." James responded.

"Didn't expect you to be back. What's up?"

"I forgot to fill up on items and decided to get back here."

"Smart move. You can never be too safe."

James walked into the house where he performed synthesis for the first time and began checking the book for items he could craft. The only items that were available at the moment were cures, antidote, tonic, holy water and stimulants. Every other entry was blank. He was disappointed. _That's all? I expected more, but if this is all, I guess I have no choice._ He got to work. Getting whatever ingredients he could find around the village and crafting whatever he could make. Soon his satchel was filled to the brim with 10 of each item, yet its shape remained the same. "Huh. Didn't think it could carry that many. And still light too… This is definitely a magical item." He walked out to see his units and Karl outside waiting.

"Hey. I can't create much here, why is that?" He asked Karl.

Karl was confused. "That's odd. There should have been more items available." He walked out to the house between the farm and the synthesis house. Inside was a rather large container, there was a small knob at the base, each side a different label: Mountain, River, Farm, Forest, Sphere and Synthesis. The containers were translucent, were they empty? He looked to see six screens, they had the same labels like the knob, what's odd was that all of them showed "Level 1".

"Oh dear." Karl said with a worried expression.

"What?"

"Didn't think it would run out now…"

"What are you talking about?"

"You see. This place is run by an energy source called Karma."

"Karma?"

"It's the life energy obtained when defeating a monster. It's used to helps plants grow, keeps the water clean, keeps the mountain stable and used when creating spheres. I don't know how it's empty now…"

James' eyes, err eye, widened with curiosity. "It does all that?"

"Yeah. It's hard to believe I know. Do you ever see blue orbs in addition to battle crystals after you defeat an enemy?"

"Yes."

"That's karma. It gets stored in there; you can unlock new items to make and gain more materials as it gets filled up."

"I'll be sure to contribute whatever I can."

"Thanks a lot." Karl then realized something. "Oh! Sorry. I have to go. I've just been assigned to the Demon Slayers Division, but I guess you have no idea what that means."

James' raised an eyebrow. "I can sort of understand. You've been assigned a mission, right?"

"Yeah. I'd better go before-" He was immediately cut off by a woman's voice.

"Hey Karl! What the heck's taking so long?!" The voice came from near the entrance.

They both turned to see a woman stomping furiously to them. She too wore armor, though in a red color and had the eye color to match. Her brown hair was tied up into a ponytail, and she held a great sword on her right hand. "You know we have a mission so-" She quickly turned to James, glaring at him. "Who's this?"

Karl chuckled. "That's James. He helped me earlier when I was in a bind." He turned to James. "That's Seria; she's a friend of mine."

The woman raised an eyebrow. "This guy? He looks like he was the one who put you in that "bind" in the first place."

James sighed. _Here we go again._ "I can understand that you would think that, but I didn't."

Seria scoffed. "Maybe, you look too clueless to do something like that." Her tone was condescending.

He scoffed back. "You have yet to know who I am, so I wouldn't make any base accusations or insults about me."

"Same can be said for you." She sneered.

James chucked. "I guess we're both clueless then." His expression remained calm.

"Don't put me at the same level as you!" she retorted.

"Okay. Let's not get carried away." Karl intervened. "We should go, demons can't hunt themselves."

Seria calmed down a bit. "Fine, anything that can help me get away from this idiot."

James nodded. "I guess it's high time we get moving as well." He turned to his units.

Karl began to walk up to James. "This is where we part ways, friend. I hope we cross paths later."

James shook hands with him. "Likewise. All the best with your mission."

"Same for yours. By the way, here." He hands to James a small bag, containing three gems. "This should help you get started. Remember, you need five in order to perform this summon."

"Are you sure? I mean, this is yours."

Karl smiled. "It's not a problem; I have my ways in obtaining more. Besides, you need it more than I do."

"Thank you."

"Can you hurry up already?!" Seria yelled impatiently.

"Okay, you didn't need to be so loud." Karl chuckled as quickly ran to catch up with Seria.

James chuckled to himself and sighed. _It's nice to have friends... Especially those who look after you._ He stared down to the ground, his expression became a bit depressed. _I wonder how everyone else is doing right now..._

"Oi!" Vargas shouted. "Are we gonna start this quest or not?"

Ardin joined in."You can't be serious. How long are you gonna make US wait?"

James walked up to his units. "Sorry, kind of spaced out there for a second. Let's go guys." He began to walk to the town's entrance.

"What's up with him? He gets too distracted." Ardin wondered.

"Beats me. I've seen him like this a couple of times before and I still don't understand him." Vargas answered.

"Huh."

James yelled from underneath the archway. "And here I thought you guys wanted to get this quest started? You two coming?"

The party once again left the Village of the Venturer, heading toward to the Cave to where Tilith was, as they resume their quest.

* * *

 **Gem count: 3**


	5. Chapter 4: Purpose and Fiery Cave

"Where is he?!" Tilith shouted as she paced around the empty area of the cave, a couple hundred yards away from the entrance. "He must really be taking his time to prepare. I'm glad he is, but I can't stand waiting in here!" The caves temperature was getting to her, she was sweating all over. If she had to stay in there for one more minute, she would keel over with exhaustion. She started to rant. "It's so hot! I wanna go home! This is unbearable…"At that moment, James' party arrived, the two units arguing about the temperature. James had his hand over his face sighing with disappointment, as if he had listened to this argument for hours.

"Well isn't this a fine mess! It's too damn hot in here!" Ardin shouted.

"I dunno what you're talking about, I don't feel anything." Vargas said nonchalantly.

"Says you! You're a fire elemental!"

"I can't help it if I don't feel anything! Why don't you use those wings of yours to cool yourself off?"

"They don't work that way!"

"Guys stop." James intervened. "This is only the first step of the quest. Now's not the time to bicker. We have to find-" He stopped as he saw Tilith, who was running up to the group with an angry look on her face.

"What took you so long? It's rude to make a lady wait, even in a place like this!" She shouted.

James scratched his head. "Sorry about that."

 _Gods! He's so apologetic! I'm not sure if he's really sorry or not!_ She thought. "And how are you not feeling hot in that?" She asked James, who showed no signs of sweating, or any signs of being hot for that matter.

He shrugged. " I'm used to temperatures like this."

Tilith pouted. "I bet you're sweating on the inside."

He shrugged again. "Maybe. Now, we didn't get to finish our conversation back at the prairie. I know now's not the right time to talk about it, but what is this quest Lucius wants me to go on?"

"Oh! I forgot. I did promise you that I'd tell you about it." She took a few seconds to clear her throat. "Now listen carefully, because I will not repeat this twice." James nodded.

Her tone became a little more serious. "Grand Gaia is in the midst of a great crisis. The reason is that among the powerful Gods that are watching over us, some have been consumed by evil. In defiance of the Holy Emperor Karna Masta, they now wreak havoc. Among these evil forces, the few who possess the most exceptional powers are known as The Four Fallen Gods." James was listening to every word of her lecture, this was all new to him, but it sparked curiosity in him. "They used to be high ranking Gods, but now they are taking Grand Gaia for themselves. They have not only made the monsters and spirits their subordinates, they've also used their powers to summon and manipulate the legendary heroes of Grand Gaia."

James spoke up. "So they're just like me, but they use their powers for their own purpose."

"Yes." Tilith responded.

"How deplorable…"

Ardin shook his head. "I can't believe this. But I guess I'm lucky to be summoned by James than become the Gods' slave."

Vargas nodded. "Same here."

Tilith continued. "If we don't stop them, Grand Gaia will be destroyed; even the Holy Emperor Karna Masta and the other Gods can only hold them off for so long. That's why Lucius opened a gate leading to this world; he's seeking to borrow your powers. That is why only the chosen ones can see the gate."

James began thinking to himself. "So, given the gravity of the situation, if nothing's done, it spells disaster for this world. Can their influence spread beyond Grand Gaia?

Her tone became a bit sadder. "I don't know. But there is a chance they might…"

He became tenser upon hearing that. _Just who are these Fallen Gods? How powerful are they and why go so far as to destroy the world?_

Her tone suddenly changed back into her usual cheerful demeanor. "But Lord Lucius has high hopes for you! You have the potential to defeat them!"

James sighed. The story coming from him sounded like nothing more but a fairy tale. Still, considering he has yet to find any noteworthy details in Grand Gaia to record until now, Lucius was most likely the cause of the anomaly, and this may be the reason why. "A difficult task, and the safety of this world, and probably other worlds, rest on me…" He looked at Tilith with a serious look, his tone matched his facial expression. "I'm not a fan of innocent bloodshed. If iwhat you say is true, then I suppose I will do as you say. Tracking and eliminating the Gods are now my priority."

Though the tone sounded rather intimidating, Tilith felt happier from James' words. "That's what I like to hear! Your first target will be one of the Four Fallen Gods, the God of Creation, Maxwell. She has taken over St. Lamia and claimed it as her stronghold."

"Judging by that title, then she must be of a higher level..."

Her attitude remained the same. "Not to worry! You have Lord Lucius, me and your units by your side!"

James felt slightly reassured. "Where is this place?"

"We're currently in Mistral. You need to venture beyond Morgan, the land after this one. It may be a long way to go, but I know you can handle it! Let's take it step by step as you get used to being a summoner."

James looked to his units, and then back to Tilith. He nodded.

"In order to get to Morgan, we need to head to the Tower of Mistral, but we need to make our way through the cave of flames first and other places afterward."

James sighed. "Of course…"

She continued. "This place is rumored to be the home of many ferocious beasts, but I know you'll be fine!" She couldn't take care of the heat anymore; she was already sweating from head to toe. "I can't take this place anymore! I'm going back to take a shower. Take care and go on without me." She sprinted off to the caves entrance, leaving the group behind.

Vargas had a look of confusion on his face. "Do Goddesses even take showers?"

Ardin joined in. "Who knows?"

James sighed, slapping his face in disappointment. "Knowing her, I don't know what to think anymore…"

Ardin smirked. "You're not the tiniest bit curious about it?"

James stared ahead, ignoring Ardin's remark. His tone of voice was different than usual; it was more serious than before, almost monotone. "We have a mission; I must see this to the end. We need to get through this place and head for the tower." He walked ahead of them, saying nothing else.

"Hey! Wait up!" yelled Vargas.

"Man…" Ardin sighed. "That guy is serious about everything. He really needs to relax a little." He followed the two further into the cave. All this sounded hard to believe, Tilith's story sounded very outlandish. Still, the possibility of a threat that might continue to spread to other worlds should not be dismissed. If there really was something going on in here, he would have to see it for himself.

…

The exterior of the cave resembled that of a miniature volcano, it made sense that the interior would be just that. Small rivers of lava were flowing here and there, and the temperature was hot. Each step felt as they were literally walking on fire, and it was getting hard to breathe.

"We need to get through this place, and fast." said James.

"You're telling me!" yelled Ardin. "This place is killing me!"

"Could have used those wings and blown some of the air away…" said Vargas.

"It wouldn't have worked!"

Their argument was cut off by the sound of chuckling, by the sound of it; it didn't come from James or the units.

"Stay sharp!" yelled James. He summoned his sword and went into a fighting stance. Vargas and Ardin did the same. Some shadows started to dart around the party, using some of the stalagmites in the cave as cover.

"Kehehe!" a cackle came from somewhere, but the walls made it so that it made finding the origin of the voice difficult.

"Over here!"

"No here!"

"I'm here!"

"Stupid humans."

The voices were calling out in all directions; the echoing made it more annoying. They were laughing, taunting at the party.

"This is really starting to annoy me." Ardin said.

"Where are they coming from?" wondered Vargas.

James was looking around the area, his eyes quickly darting in all directions locating the source. He quickly pulled out a revolver and open fired on the stalagmites. With each shot they shattered, all were broken into smithereens in a mere amount of seconds. Some of the shadows jumped, startled from the bang that came from the revolver.

"There's no use hiding! Come out you cowards!" James yelled as he put the revolver back into his holster.

"Heh. You think you're clever, don't you." said one of the voices, it sounded raspy.

One by one, the figures emerged, revealing themselves to be goblins. They appeared to be just like the ones back at the prairie. They were minuscule in size, had green skin, wore light armor and cloth hats. All of them what appeared to be a wooden paddle in their hands. They all had a wide, evil grin in their faces, chuckling all the way.

"You made a big mistake coming into our home!" said one.

"Yeah! You're gonna pay for trespassing!" said another.

"You're good as dead!"

James sighed. "We do not have the time for this. We need to pass through this cave. If you would be so kind as to let us pass on, it would be greatly appreciated."

One of the goblins laughed, and the rest did shortly afterward.

"You think we would allow humans to pass? Then again, there has not been a human around here in centuries…" the rest snickered.

James wondered what they meant by that, did they mean in the cave, or Grand Gaia itself? There was no time to think, the enemy in front of him may be hostile, but he wanted to take a different approach. His expression quickly turned to a harsh glare; he raised his blade and pointed at the goblins neck. They stopped laughing.

"I don't know what you're intentions are, but if you're going to get in the way, I will not hesitate to kill you." His voice matched his harsh face.

The goblin in front of him then began to shiver, its legs wobbling from fear. The rest also did the same, their smiles wiped off their faces.

"Now… tell me why I shouldn't start cutting down everyone in this room." He maintained his intimidating tone.

"We don't mean to cause you any trouble, we're just bored!" The goblin stuttered. The others nodded in agreement. "Besides, even if we let you through, there is this horrible monster deep in the cave…"

"Yeah." said the other goblins.

James kept the blade in its position, but his expression became less tense, he was filled with curiosity. '"What monster?" he inquired.

"I don't know what it looks like. It showed up one day and began harassing us. I lost a couple of friends because of it. They were scratched up real bad." The others nodded. "P-please don't hurt us..." It was on the verge of tears.

"I see." James thought for a moment. "Let me offer a deal with you."

"Wh-what deal?" it wondered, tears still in its eyes.

"I will track this monster down and deal with it, in exchange, you let us pass and I won't hurt you." He put his sword away and stretched his hand out, offering it a handshake. "Deal?"

It knew it was in no position to complain, but it still seemed like a good opportunity to get rid of the monster. Besides, he looked like he was perfectly capable of going against it. The goblin quickly wiped its tears and enthusiastically shouted, "Deal!" The other goblins cheered.

James expression went back to his usual calm one. "Now, here can I find this monster?" he asked.

"Go deeper in the cave, there is another exit, leading to the outside, it's waiting there."

"Thank you." He turned to his units. "Well, we got ourselves a little extermination." They then proceeded to go further into the cave, but they were quickly halted.

"Wait!" One of the goblins shouted.

"What is it?" James wondered.

"There were two more people that came with the monster, I don't know if they're its friend or something."

"I'll keep that in mind."

The group resumed walking, with the goblins behind them cheering. Soon then their cheering became muffled and then inaudible.

"What the hell did you do back there? They were literally shaking in their boots." Ardin spoke.

James sighed. "Sorry if you saw that. It was meant to get them intimidated so that I can reduce any more senseless violence. I've seen their kind before; they need to be persuaded sometimes. They didn't look like they really wanted to hurt us. "

"You are going to keep your promise, right?" Vargas wondered.

James nodded. "Yeah. I was taught to never go back on a promise, no matter how hard or stupid it may be." He stared ahead. "If what they're saying is true, then we may encounter something big."

Ardin spoke up. "Who taught you that?"

James stood silently. His expression became slightly sadder, and he appeared to be in a trance.

"James?" He stood silent; his breathing was softer than normal.

"Oi!" Ardin shouted.

James quickly snapped out. "S-sorry. Never mind, let's go." He walked ahead of them. The way he was a few seconds ago came across as suspicious to Vargas and Ardin, who were still trying to figure out what's wrong with him.

"There he goes again. What's his problem?" Ardin asked.

"I don't know, but let's ask later, I don't think now's the time to do that." Vargas responded.

They silently followed James, descending deeper into the cave.


	6. Chapter 5: A Heated Battle

Most caves would become darker and darker as one kept going deeper, but the small rivers of lava helped to illuminate the area, the hot air that rose from them made the objects above them looked warped. The temperature remained the same, but the group was in no position to complain. Every step they took, every breath, every action they did would make them even more exhausted. They were in no mood to waste any energy, but there were enemies that lurked within the cave, mainly red slimes, or Burny's, as Vargas called them. They had no choice but to fight them, doing their best to not to overdo themselves. The setting remained the same throughout; there were no visible signs whether or not the party was making progress. Suddenly, they see something shining in the distance. They all squinted to see what it was, James quickly reacted.

"Get down!" He shouted. They did so.

James felt something move past his hair, followed by something hitting the rocky wall behind them. He looked to see a knife embedded on the wall. He leaned in close to it in order to examine the weapon. It was a curved, single-edged knife. There was nothing special about it other than that, except for a suspicious smell that came from it. It was a smell he knew all too familiar: Poison.

"Incoming!" Yelled Vargas as a fireball came out of nowhere. They dodged the oncoming attack, which made a small explosion as it made an impact with the floor.

Two figures emerged from the darkness ahead, one a man, the other a woman. The male had white hair, which spiked upward with the headband he was wearing. He wore a rather decorated purple hooded cloak over his garb, a typical bandit. The woman beside him wore a pointed red hat over her pink hair. She wore a red robe decorated with a couple of skulls and was floating in the air on her broom, a witch.

"Well, what do we have here?" The male spoke. "Lost, are we?"

"A summoner." The woman laughed. "You possess quite a talent. How will your units stand against my flames?"

James stared at the two. "Who are you? Why do you stand in the way?"

"We can't let you go past us; we know you're going to fight Maxwell." The male replied.

"Yeah." The woman replied, "The only way you can go through is if you get past us!"

He sighed. His face shifted to a glare as he brought up his sword. "If you are going to get in the way, I will have to cut you down. I'm going to give you only one warning. Stand aside or die."

"Trying to get all tough on us?" The witch cackled. "That won't work."

James smirked. "You do realize that this is two against three? There is no chance for you to win."

He heard a growl coming from ahead. Another creature emerged from the dark behind the enemies. The new combatant was that of another young male, he possessed wildly spiky blonde hair tied in a ponytail. His red pants were torn, his skin was in an unnatural gray color, and he wore many scars all over his body. His hands were normal human hands, but the three sharp claws over his knuckles were very peculiar, there was no way he could have been a human. Could this be the monster the goblin spoke of earlier?

Vargas looked at the three, looking to the thief, the witch, and the beast, calling out their respective names. "Leon? Liza? Zegar?" he spoke up.

"You know these people?" James asked.

"Yeah, they were all people I knew from my home, Agni." He replied.

James looked to the three; he looked more carefully at them, something was off. _Their eyes, they seem devoid of life, in contrast of their expressions._ James thought. _They must have been manipulated somehow. It may be the so-called Fallen Gods work…_

"Okay." James spoke up. "You two pick your targets. Remember, these are not the same people you know, they are manipulated. Do what you can to eliminate them."

"I'll go for Leon!" Ardin yelled as he charged towards the thief.

"I'll fight Liza!" Vargas yelled as he ran towards Liza.

"Guess that means I have to fight Zegar." said as he walked towards Zegar.

Zegar glared at James, who was going into a fighting stance.

"Sorry about this." James whispered. Zegar only growled in response.

He quickly lunged at James, who quickly performed a sidestep, avoiding Zegar's attack. He quickly regained his balance and quickly swung his arms. James quickly blocked it with his blade. The claws were very durable, at that point, he felt like he was fighting an enemy with two swords. Zegar brought his other free hand and attempted to plunge one of his claws to James' chest; it was quickly stopped by James other hand, firmly holding it in place, with the claw just mere inches away from his body. He quickly kicked Zegar, staggering him. With a roar, Zegar charged at James again, who blocks the oncoming attack. _His speed, his strength_ he thought. _Just what are you?_ He quickly pushed Zegar with his blade. They were in a constant pattern of Zegar charging and quickly swinging his claws, and James blocking and dodging, hopefully finding a break his attack pattern.

* * *

Ardin faced off against Leon. Both attacked with swift strikes, Leon was jumping from corner to corner, hoping to catch the black winged man by surprise.

"Can you keep up with me?" Leon shouted mockingly.

"You can't run forever" Ardin replied. "You thieves are all the same."

Leon came from behind, attempting to ambush him, but it was quickly blocked. He quickly jumped back, avoiding the swing of Ardin's sword.

"Did you seriously think I'm stupid? I've trained longer than you probably had." Ardin gloated.

Leon smirked. "I wouldn't be so sure…"

Ardin checked his body, only to see a small cut on his chest. "Sneaky little bastard."

Leon twirled his knife with a smug look. "Shouldn't have been so cocky. Now it's only a matter of time before the poison kills you."

Ardin scoffed. "Gives me all the more reason to kill you quickly." They both charged at each other once more.

* * *

Vargas in the meantime was fighting Liza, who fired a constant barrage of fireballs at him. He blocked each one, a few had grazed his arm, and they left small burns on his skin. It was getting annoying, there was no way he could try to get close to land a hit without risking being hit by one of those fireballs.

"I'm getting tired of blocking these things!" Vargas yelled.

Liza laughed. "Did you think it was going to be easy? You should have stayed dead!"

Vargas laughed as well. "Hah! As long a small ember remains, fire can still burn!" He started to charge towards Liza, just as he was about to swing, she flew out of out of his reach. He missed. "Forgot that you were on that thing!" Liza laughed as she sped away on her broomstick. He sighed. _This is going to take a while…_ thought Vargas. He then ran after her.

James' party kept fighting the trio; it was starting to get annoying. They were simply too fast for them to keep up with their attacks. Every time they managed to land an attack, blue crystals were dropped, and the units absorbed them.

Zegar kept attacking James, who in turn blocked every attack that came his way. He soon found an opening and took the opportunity to commence a counter-attack. He started swinging his sword wildly roaring all the way, giving Zegar a taste of his own medicine. He swung fast and strong yet smooth, almost in a weaving motion, Zegar couldn't keep up with him and eventually lost his footing. James quickly switched to a different fighting position, following up with a palm strike on Zegar's chest. It sent him flying towards the wall. He was still standing, although still dazed by the previous blow he just received. Nonetheless, he looked all the angrier, teeth clenched tightly as he glared at James.

* * *

Leon kept charging at Ardin, landing small cuts as he did so. With every cut, the poison became worse. He couldn't keep up with the relentless attacks; Ardin was beginning to slow down, slowly getting weaker from the poison.

"Hey James!" Yelled Ardin. "I need a-" James quickly tossed an antidote and a cure, to which he gulped it down quickly. His strength returned to normal, and the poison was gone. Ardin was in good shape once again. "Thanks."

"Yeah! Now where were we?" He gave a grin towards Leon, who also did the same.

 _This is going to be fun…_ they both thought.

* * *

Vargas was still chasing after Liza, who was literally flying circles around him, laughing as she did so.

"Oh come on!" He shouted.

Fireballs were coming from all around, he couldn't block them all. Small burns were all over his body. But he was a fire elemental, to him, it didn't affect him all that much, but this didn't make the attacks any less painful. He looked to see if there was any way to stop her, he came up with an idea. He quickly swung his sword with all his might to the ground, it cracked as he dragged it along. He quickly swung it upward, sending pieces of rock flying towards Liza.

"Hey! That's not fair!" She cried.

"Well you do have magic and I don't." Vargas replied.

The rocks were a miniature rain of arrows flying towards Liza. They didn't hurt much, but they were distracting her from flying. She hit the wall head first and was knocked off her broomstick. In anger she quickly got up and started casting more fireballs at Vargas, while he charged towards her blocking as he did so, all with a more confident smile on his face.

They were strong, unlike the slimes and other monsters they encountered. There has to be a way to beat them all quickly, but what? After collecting enough crystals, Vargas' body was slowly being surrounded by his own flames, his eyes and his sword both glowed a bright red. Shortly after, Ardin and his blade were filled with a light purple aura. They both turned to James.

"Brave burst ready!" yelled Vargas.

"Ready when you are! Just say the word!" yelled Ardin.

 _Of course!_ He thought. _This may be the only way to end this._ He quickly looked towards the ceiling. _I just hope it doesn't backfire on us._ James quickly performed a back handspring, avoiding another one of Zegar's attacks. This was his chance to take them all down in one fell swoop. "Do it now!" He yelled. The two units began to yell, the energy surrounding them began to intensify.

"Oh no." Liza gulped.

"We're toast." Leon said.

Zegar only let out a soft growl. They knew what was going to happen next.

At once, the energy built up inside the two units was released as they performed their brave bursts, shouting their respective attacks.

"Flare Ride!"

"Plum Scent!"

A mix of fire, dark and a bit of light energy shook the area. The enemies cried out in pain as they were engulfed by Ardin and Vargas' attack. One by one, they began to vanish, leaving no traces of their existence. In the aftermath, bits of rock were still falling from the ceiling, and a small crater was all they could see in front of them. What remained of them were two small white floating orbs, presumably their souls. The two orbs were quickly absorbed by James; they disappeared as they made contact with his body. He could faintly hear their voices inside his head.

"Thanks for saving us!" It was Liza's voice. "We're free from the Gods control because of you!"

"Yeah. Let's make it up to you; we'll fight alongside with you from now on!" It was Leon's. "Just split the reward with me, alright?"

James quickly shook his head, still a bit surprised at what just happened. He let out a sigh of relief, knowing that he not only freed their souls, but he gained new allies. But what of Zegar? All he could find was a single gem in the middle of the crater, the same gem used for summoning. He slowly walked towards it and picked it up and put it into the small bag along with the other gems. This made four, one more and he can summon once again.

"Good job guys." He congratulated his units.

Vargas responded. "Nice, at least we got Leon and Liza, but what about…?"

James silently stared at the ground.

"Oh…" he looked disappointed.

James thought for a moment. "They have the power to summon like me, but I guess their grip can be stronger on others. The monsters are plentiful, but the heroes… they may be uncommon. There's no doubt we'll see copies of them in the future. There is still a chance to save Zegar as well."

"Right…"

James felt something behind him, it felt cold and the area around them was getting cooler, a sense of relief fell over the party. It was the wind. They began to walk towards the direction to where the wind was blowing; a light was seen ahead of them, the way out. They looked out to see a vast field of snow ahead of them, the sky was still blue. As they proceeded to go for the exit, someone shouted from the corner.

"Hey!" the voice sounded sort of squeaky.

The group turned to see a little figure behind them. The figure looked like a small, almost cartoonish looking ghost with a red witch hat decorated with a red star ornament. It held a staff with a shape similar to that of the crescent moon with a floating red orb in the middle of it.

"You guys look pretty interesting! Can I go with you?" it asked James.

He was a bit hesitant at first. "What can you do?" he asked.

"I'm a Fire Nymph! I can help your units evolve!" it responded.

James thought for a moment. He remembered what Tilith said about sacrificing units to evolve units to make them stronger. _Could this be an evolution based material?_ "Are you sure about this?" he asked.

"It's my job! As long I can help out, I got no problem!" it replied enthusiastically

James sighed. "I see. I will use you when the time comes."

"Okay!" The nymph then turned to the familiar floating white orb from before and James absorbed it.

He looked towards Vargas, whom he believed to be the candidate to use this new found evolutionary unit on.

"You want to try it out now?"

Vargas shook his head. "Not yet, I need to grow stronger first, after all, I can't evolve without maximizing my experience first."

James sighed. "Alright. Just let me know when." He turned towards the light. "Let's get out of here." They began to walk towards the exit, finally away from the hot setting that was the cave. Unbeknownst to the party, however, they were walking towards onto an equally dangerous setting.

* * *

 **Area Clear! Gem count: 4**


	7. Chapter 6: The Snowfield

Cold. The one word that describes the current setting. The field was covered in a blanket of snow, as the group had just recently exited the not so dark cave, this light was blinding for them, the sunlight reflecting off of the snow. There was nothing else they could see other than the cloudy sky and the field before them, much like the prairie. This was a dramatic change from the fiery cave they were just in. It was lightly snowing around them, which was both comforting and troubling.

"Gah! I don't which is worse, that cave, or this place!" Ardin ranted.

"Can you shut up?" Vargas groaned. "Your shouting is really starting to get on my nerves."

"Hey! I can't help it if I'm cold!"

"Well, you should have better armor then!"

"How else can I move around properly?! I can't swing my sword in something heavy!"

James sighed. _These guys… I guess it can't be helped._ He was walking ahead of them, scouting the area to see if Tilith was here. As if on cue, he spots her in a distance, shivering and huddling herself for warmth.

"Achoo!" her sneeze can be heard from where he was standing.

He quickly ran up to her, leaving his units behind. He knelt down beside her. "Are you alright?" He asked.

"Alright?!" She snapped. "Does it look like I'm alright? How dare you make me wait out here!"

"Why did you wait here? You could have waited near the exit."

"I can't just stand there and wait to get killed!"

James sighed. "You're obviously freezing. Here." He gently put off his coat and placed it on top of Tilith. He was now wearing a long, light suit jacket of the same color. Tiliths eyes widened with surprise. "E-Eh?! Don't you need this?"

He shook his head. "It's my way of apologizing for making you wait. Besides, I'm used to the weather so don't worry about me."

She pouted. "I wish I was just as tolerable to the weather as you are…" The coat felt a little weird, as it was a bit large for her size and stuffed with things she didn't know, but it still felt comfortable and it kept her warm.

He sighed. "You have no idea…"

"Hmm?"

"It's… nothing." He looked away from her for a second.

Tilith was a bit dumbfounded. _A man who wears such dark clothes cannot be this nice, yet there is still something wrong with him. He spaces out and gets a bit emotional at times, could there be something I don't know?_ She wondered.

"Is there something wrong?" James asked.

She was snapped out of her trance and was flustered; she blushed and was wildly waving her arms. "It's nothing!"

James sighed. "If you say so…" The two slowly got up. "So, what can you tell me about this area?"

"A knight summoned by Maxwell is terrorizing the area. The knight should be near the end of this place."

James thought for a moment. "I see. It's just like back in the cave…"

"Back in the cave?"

He nodded. "Yeah… I saw some of those heroes you mentioned. They appeared to be manipulated, most likely by the Fallen Gods. They knew I was coming."

"Really? Did they give you any problems?"

"Why else was I late?"

Tilith looked down to the ground in dismay. "Oh dear… then it looks like this won't be as easier as I hoped…"

"When is it ever easy?" He patted on her shoulder. "But no one said it's impossible. I was able to free them from their control."

Tilith perked up upon hearing that. "I knew you were the right one for the job!" She shouted. She was full of happiness and joy but quickly regained her composure. "Ahem. This place is called Egor Snowfield. This area is full of enemies of the water element, so fire elementals like Vargas will have a hard time here." She then realized that his units were not by his side. "Where are they?"

James sighed and pointed behind him. The two units were still arguing, no doubt they were still complaining about the weather. "I swear they're like children."

Tilith giggled. "It's never boring around your units, is it?"

James sighed again. "Well. I guess I better get rid of the enemy then. The longer I stay here, the more I have to deal with them."

Tilith nodded. "Okay. I will meet you up ahead at the Forest of Beasts." She quickly ran off, but she was quickly stopped by James.

"Wait."

"What is it?" She turned to look at him.

"If there is a knight ahead, it's not safe to just simply run ahead. How about you stay with us for the time being?"

"But-"

"I can't let anyone run towards danger, I don't want anyone I know dying. You also know more of this place than I do. Please." He begged. His expression was serious, but his words had a sense of honesty and sincerity to it. It seemed odd, she should be the one concerned for his safety, not the other way around.

Tilith blushed slightly before nodding. "Okay."

They both began to walk back to the units, who were still arguing. _Her personality, always cheerful and sort of childish… Why? Why does it remind me of you?_ He quickly shook his head. _No… not now. Not here. But if she finds me like this I wouldn't hear the end of it._

"I'm just saying that your armor is not enough for you. Hell, your chest is showing for crying out loud." Vargas said.

"I found it like this! There was nothing else I could find at the time!" Ardin shouted.

"Guys." James interrupted the conversation.

And so they did. They turned to face James, who was wearing a long suit jacket instead of his usual trench coat. Tilith was also by his side, wearing his coat.

"Where the hell is your coat?" Ardin asked.

James pointed to Tilith. Vargas spoke up. "That explains where your coat went. So what do we need to know about this place?"

"While you two were bickering, I had a little chat with Tilith. We need to get through this place and head towards the next location, the Forest of Beasts. This place is also filled with water elemental enemies. You're going to have a hard time here Vargas."

"I see. Well, I guess I'll have to keep my guards up. What else?"

He continued. "A knight summoned by Maxwell is patrolling near the exit. No doubt they're going to expect us."

The two nodded.

"I guess that also explains why she is here." Ardin said.

"Let's get moving" He looked up. He could barely see the sun above him, but he knew it was beginning its descent, soon nightfall will come. "We don't have the time to stand around here."

…

The group was making their way through the Snowfield. Once again slimes were present, their blue color matched to the element associated with the area. In addition, scaly mermen were attacking the party with their spears. Unlike the goblins back in the cave, these were more hostile; there was no room for conversation.

"Kishashasha!" They uttered their battle cries.

Ardin and Vargas were cutting down the enemies ahead; James in the meantime was staying close to Tilith protecting her.

"Cover your ears." He said to her as he pulled out his revolver. He began to fire at the enemies with quick precision. The sound was indeed loud; a few enemies had run off because of it. Six shots, six enemies down.

*click click*

The clip was empty. He quickly emptied out the used bullet casings and reloaded with unnaturally fast motion. In almost an instant it was ready to fire again. However, one of the mermen was getting dangerously close, getting ready to attack Tilith.

"Kya!" she squealed.

James quickly ran up to the merman, kicking the spear upward and quickly performed a palm strike with enough force to send it flying. He began to the same with the rest of the attackers, using unarmed combat to drive them off. One of them tried to get him from above, but it was immediately cut down as he brought his sword out. Tilith was watching the whole fight wide-eyed, staring in amazement with his skills. It took some time, but the remaining enemies began to retreat, the group was able to relax for a moment.

He turned to his units. "How are you guys holding up?"

Ardin raised a thumbs up. "Easy."

"Took me a while, but I can manage." said Vargas.

Tilith was running up to him, all excited like a schoolgirl. "How do you do that?!" she asked.

"It… requires a lot of training." He began to look at his bandaged left hand, opening and closing all the while. "I can't rely on my sword alone. I got used to using other weaponry as well, to the point where I can get a clear understanding just by holding it." He once again looked slightly depressed. "Some call me a freak just because of that, that my skills were… 'Inhuman' "

"I don't think that." She walked up to him. "You protected me. If you use your abilities for good, that's all that matters, right?"

Outward, he was faintly smiling, inside, however, he felt a sense of nostalgia. _This feeling… Why… just why am I reminded of you?_ He thought. That train of thought was derailed, however, as he began to hear the sound of hearty laughter in the distance.

"Yo ho ho!" It had to be a pirate. And sure enough, it was.

A figure began to appear, a portly adult male with a white bandana wrapped around his head. He wore a small, short sleeved brown jacket over his striped shirt it was small, leaving his belly exposed. He wore a blue cloth on his waist, and on his hand was a cutlass.

"Stand back." James told Tilith.

"Give me all your gold summoner, or you'll feel the business end of me sword!" His accent had a slight similarity to the pirates he had seen prior to his quest, albeit a relaxed tone. Still, there was no mistaking that he was serious.

James stepped up. "Stand aside, or you'll feel mine." He pointed his blade towards the pirate.

"Oh, it looks like you have some fight in ya!" He chuckled with a grin on his face.

He wanted to call for his units, but they were busy fighting enemies that began to show up, almost inconveniently. He had no choice, he was on his own. The pirate began to charge at James, but his figure made it so that he was waddling towards him, when he tried to swing it was rather slow, flapping his arms a couple of times before actually swinging. Despite his awkward movements, the swing was very fast. He quickly blocked the attack.

"For a man of your stature, you have quite the movements." James pushed the pirate back.

He began to introduce himself. "I'm Verica, laddie! Don't you underestimate me!" His wobbling movements were faster now, and he quickly rolled out of the way.

"This may get interesting…" He quickly dove in and attempted to trip Verica, doing a slide tackle. He hopped over him, dodging it. _Impressive. But I what do I do now?_ He tried to attack the pirate, but he was quickly blocked, staggering a little as he was repelled. He tried to attack again, it failed.

He began to scan the area hoping to find a way to use the place to his advantage. There was no place he can try to get him from behind; there was nothing else to do. But then he looked at Verica. _A man like that may not have enough energy to fight for a long time. I can't exactly fight him head on due to his speed, so I guess I have to tire him out._ He quickly began to run up to Verica. The moment he began to swing his sword, James dodged. Verica used the momentum of the last swing in order to try to catch him by surprise, but it failed. James dodged the strike again.

"Hold still, laddie!" he said impatiently.

This process repeated for a short while, with James making no attempt for a counter attack. Sweat began to form on Verica, he was beginning to tire. His swings were becoming slower, breathing heavily as he tried to move. Now, all he can do is stand there. James slowly walked up to Verica, his head faced down and his hair covering his eyes. Verica shuddered as he inched closer, fearing what he would do now.

"What are ye waiting for?" He yelled.

James remained silent, his walk changed to running. Just as he was close enough…

* **POW** *

He quickly punched the pirate in the face. He was knocked out instantly. James stared at Verica, who had a dazed look on his face. "He'll live."

Ardin and Vargas, after finishing the rest of the enemies on their end, walked up to James.

"You could've have finished him quickly, why didn't you?" Ardin asked.

"I have my own morals. He didn't look that bad to me." He responded. "Besides, if I didn't hold back, it'd be messier here."

"Huh..." Ardin thought to himself. _I wonder how it would look like if he did?_

Verica at this time began to wake up. Everyone looked to the downed pirate. He was rubbing his head.

"Argh… what was I doing?" He wondered. He then looked to the party. "Who are you?"

"Long story short, you were under the Fallen Gods control." James said. "And I'm here to stop them."

"The Gods? Ye're crazy if you think you can stop them."

"No one said it was impossible."

Verica chuckled. "Hah! Ye are a brave one to go against them. Fine then! I'll Tag along with ye! Should be a Great Adventure!" He gave one more hearty laugh as he turned into a white soul; he was then absorbed by James. Another one freed.

Tilith smiled. "You really do care for others, don't you? Most summoners tend to be straight-forward."

"It doesn't matter what they are, they're still living beings. Wait. Did you say "most" summoners?"

"There are others like you, those who have the ability to summon units. There are some that actually care for their own units. They also have the power to travel through the gate, just like you."

"I see. If there are other summoners, it will be interesting to meet them someday." But James pondered for a moment. "Then why me? What makes me different than everyone else? Lucius could have easily chosen someone else, but instead chose me."

"Not everyone can handle the responsibility you have right now. Maybe it's because of whatever you've been through, he saw that you were capable of handling it. "

He stared off into the distance. Several thoughts began to fill in his head. _Does Lucius know who I am? Could they possibly know what I did? Just how much do they know about me? This is a God I've yet to actually see except for that light._ He then looked ahead. _No... I can't get distracted now. I'm sure the answer will come later._ "Let's get moving. The forest is just ahead." They continued onwards, trekking through the field, with the sun slowly making its descent.


	8. Chapter 7: Dark Awakening

It was beginning to darken. The sun was covered by the clouds that were beginning to form. As if it was intentionally adding on to their problems, the wind began to grow stronger, howling louder and louder. The snow began to fall heavily, their surroundings began to nothing but white, like static. The temperature was dropping fast, but it didn't stop the group, their determination to get through the field was the only thing that was fueling them, they were not going to stop for anything.

"Up ahead!" Vargas cried.

The snow kept whatever they saw ahead obscure, all they could see was green mounds in the distance. There were no signs of trees when they first saw the field, could this be the forest? There was no time for thinking; they need to move fast before they all freeze to death. They began to move towards the mounds but stopped as they saw something else. A lone figure began to emerge, a man clad in navy blue armor. His helmet was odd; there two pointed wing-like "horns" on top, and the frontal portion was more elongated. Its design somewhat resembled that of a bird's head. His mouth was covered by a metal mask; he wielded a large spear, decorated with a thin red ribbon. He stopped and gazed at the group with a cold, unflinching glare. He did a slight chuckle as if he had already anticipated this meeting.

"So you are the one she warned me about…" he said.

James stepped forward. "You must be the knight that she told me about. By any chance are you working with Maxwell?"

The knight smirked. "I am the Dragon Knight Zephu. She told me all about you, she knew you were going to be a threat, from the moment you first entered this realm. I guess I will see firsthand how strong you really are." He began to raise his spear and pointed at James. Ardin stepped forward, looking very confident.

"This one's mine." He was immediately stopped by James.

"He said he wanted to test my skill out, I should be the one to accept his challenge."

"Ugh. Fine." Ardin groaned, stepping back.

James summoned his blade as he went into a fighting stance, Zephu did the same. Both combatants glared at each other, thinking they would be able to intimidate the other to running.

"I thought you were a summoner? Aren't you going to send your units to fight?" The knight asked him.

"To send two after one combatant would be unfair, I prefer to solve these problems myself." James responded.

Heh, aren't you bold? I like that. I'll show you why I rule this domain." Zephu smirked as he twirled his spear. James silently stood there, eyes still glaring. "Alright, since you accepted my challenge, I will allow you to make the first move."

James shook his head. "I appreciate the offer, but it was you who first issued the challenge. I'll let you have the honors."

"How polite, but that politeness will be the end of you!" Zephu shouted as he quickly lunges towards James, spear pointed outward. With quick timing, James performed a sidestep, dodging the attack. Upon landing, Zephu swung his spear around as a follow-up attack, to which was countered by a quick parry. "Those are some reflexes! I thought you would be much slower considering that blade you wield."

James said nothing as he pushed the dragon knight away from him. After he did so, he stood there, blade still in hand.

"Aren't you going to attack?" Zephu asked him, starting to lose his patience. James didn't respond. "Alright, your funeral!" He took a step forward as he began to rush at James again, this time unleashing a flurry of jabs. James proceeds to block the combo, most of the hits were successfully blocked but Zephu managed to land a few hits, grazing his right arm and left leg. The pain didn't mean much to him, but by seeing this combo he was able to understand how fast Zephu can be. Looking closely he spotted an opening within the assault, and James swung his blade in a horizontal slash. Zephu anticipated this and quickly blocked the strike. "Well you're smart, I'll give you that." Zephu smirked as he pushed James back. It was then he decided to go on the offensive, James quickly closed the gap on Zephu as he brought his blade up for another strike. Zephu quickly saw this as an opportunity to breach through his defenses and thrust his spear forward; however, James used the momentum from the windup and was able to block the attack before it connected. Once again Zephu quickly goes for a counter attack but was blocked. The two began to exchange blows; sparks flew in the air as their weapons clashed.

Meanwhile on the sidelines, Ardin grew restless. "Gods damn it!" he shouted. "I was going to fight him! I ought to-"

Vargas quickly interrupted Ardin's rant as he tapped him on the shoulder. "Well, here's your chance to de-stress yourself. Enemies incoming!" he shouted as he points to a crowd of monsters quickly gathering from the duel. "I'm going to assume they're his reinforcements."

"Who cares?" Ardin shouted as he brought his blade up. "I was getting bored standing here."

"Okay. But make sure they don't get near the goddess!" Vargas gestured to Tilith, who was nearby, still trying to keep herself warm.

"That makes this all the more interesting." Ardin smirked as he charged at some Mermen.

Vargas shook his head. "I swear he'll get us all killed someday." He sighed as he fends off a couple of slimes near Tilith.

Back to the duel, James and Zephu were still clashing weapons as they continued to best each other. Zephu continued to try to keep James at bay while James tried to find an opening in Zephu's attack pattern. They found themselves locking weapons again before they pushed each other away.

"Try this on for size!" Zephu shouted as a pale blue aura began to surround him, with the energy most concentrated at the tip of the spear. "Raging Spear!" He shouted as he lunged at James with blinding speed, closing the gap in a near instant. The air around James grew slightly colder as Zephu commenced his attack; he proceeded to do four jabs enchanted with that very energy. James countered them all, but he couldn't help but to feel that his body was suddenly getting weaker, despite the spear not making contact. _This power, it has to be the wind…_ James reeled back from the last jab, which felt stronger than the other three, but quickly regained his footing as he quickly found an opening and swung horizontally, ripping through the knight's chest plate and leaving a large cut on his body. Zephu stumbled back as he examined his injury. "Not bad." He coughed. "Now I see why Lady Maxwell warned me about you…"

She did what? James thought. Does this mean the Fallen Gods also know who I am? His train of thought was interrupted by a scream. He looked ahead to see Tilith, at the mermen's mercy, their spears pointed at her.

He quickly looked back to see his units in the same predicament. Vargas looked nervous; Ardin had a look of disappointment on his face, most likely with himself.

Zephu chuckled."You have quite the talent. How about I give you an offer? You can serve Maxwell and assist the Fallen Gods in conquering Grand Gaia…" He raised his hand, and the mermen raised their spears. "Or you get to witness your friends' demise."

"N-No…" James was trembling; he was at a complete standstill. He didn't want to join them, but he didn't want to witness his friends getting killed. Several images flashed in his mind, all relating to his past tragedy, witnessing the deaths of those he cared for. Family, friends, he didn't want to go through that again; he didn't want to gain another burden. "I'm going to take you all on!" he shouted.

"Are you insane?" Vargas shouted. "You can't handle a number like that!"

He was right, even with his experience in combat, it may not be enough. The situation is already tense, hostages are involved. They could only hold out for so long until they get exhausted. He can only fire a finite amount from his revolver as well. They also need a lot of battle crystals to charge up Ardin and Vargas' Brave Bursts. They were not fully charged, and he wasn't sure on how close they were. Vargas was also another problem, considering that he was a fire type. Even If he managed to get him free, he won't be able to survive this wave of enemies, let alone a couple of them.

James himself was in another dilemma. What can I do? I always hated being in this predicament… But what can I do? If I had my friends and my other weapons here, I could end them quickly, but they're not here. I can't- He stared at his bandaged hand it was shaking. There's no other way, but I can't… I can't let them… He shut his eyes tight. And shook his head. No… I have to; there is no other way… I have no choice… but the arm is not enough, I have to use it.

The others stared at him with a mixed sense of tension, fear and confusion. What was he doing? Was he giving up now? Or did he have some kind of plan?

He looked down to the ground. His breathing began to slow as he tries to regain his composure. "Everyone… please… shut your eyes…." He said in a restrained tone, trying to hide his fear.

"What?" Ardin wondered.

"But you can't-" Tilith was quickly interrupted.

"Please!" His voice was more serious. His back still facing the group. Whatever he was planning, it was something very risky. He clenched his teeth tightly; sweat was beginning to form on his head.

Tilith was shocked at the quick change in his composure, but she did so anyway, as she was afraid of what he might do if she didn't. The units did the same.

He turned around and faced the swarm. He repeats his instruction, this time with a near-expressionless tone. "Whatever you do, don't open your eyes." He slowly began to remove the eyepatch on his left eye, clenching his teeth tightly as he did so. _I have to control it… I can't let them die here, not this early!_ He slowly opens his eye, and a surge of power began to course throughout his body. James grit his teeth as felt his muscles feel tight from the sudden change. His heart started beating faster and his breathing becoming more frequent taking shorter breaths to compensate for the sudden change. He glared at the oncoming horde of monsters as he gripped his great sword tightly. Time around him slowed down to the point where it felt almost non-existent, the enemies moved very slowly.

He began to run around the battlefield, hacking enemies down with quick precision and unbelievable strength. Their terrified screams began to fill the air, he, however, didn't relent. All sound around him was reduced to mere muffling; the monsters were seen as nothing but mere orange silhouettes in front of him.

Tilith, still at the mercy of the monsters slowly opened one eye to take a peek and tried to see what's going on. James was seen darting around the battlefield, appearing and disappearing from one corner to another, almost as if he teleported. She, however, could still see the monsters being cut down as if they were nothing.

Zephu stood there, mouth agape. His speed his strength were nothing like he had ever seen. The man he saw before completely disappeared, he became… this. Maxwell told everything about him, but never mentioned anything regarding this. Was he a monster? He couldn't tell for sure. Upon his new revelation, he knew he had made a huge mistake.

As everything was said and done, the field was a bloody mess, carcasses of what used to be monsters littered the battlefield. Their bodies faded away, bit the bloodstains left behind still remained. He turned to each of the remaining monsters that held his friends captive, who immediately fled when he did. He began to walk towards Zephu, who clearly was traumatized by the event.

"Please no! Spare me!" He pleaded as he tried to move back.

He kept moving silently, slowly approaching towards the knight who was now on his knees, tears in his eyes. James had a different look on his face, his expression matched his tone from before, both his eyes looked lifeless, and his face seemed devoid of emotion, but what lies behind it was a malicious aura.

"I w-want to live! Please!"

He raised his sword up, preparing to do the finishing blow.

"N-NO! NOOOOOOOO!"

The blade remained where it was, high above James' head. He was able to hear the scream; he stared at the downed knight. Slowly, the energy left him and his face stayed the same, and his eyes suddenly full of life again. He stood there for a moment, keeping the blade in its position until he recalled his blade.

"Leave" he said.

Zephu looked up with tears in his eyes. "W-What?"

His voice had a slight growl to it. "I said leave, and give this message to the Gods..." he began to walk towards him. "I will hunt them down, no matter what it takes. If they use my friends as hostages, I will make them pay the price. And as for you..." He then kicked him, causing him to roll on the ground; the force was enough to make him cough blood. He grabbed him by the shoulders, glaring at him. "If I ever see you get in my way again… I won't be as merciful. Is. That. Clear?" He emphasized the last words with venom, making sure he was able to get the message burned into his mind.

"Y-Yes." He whimpered.

James dropped him, and he immediately began sprinting off in a hurry. And with that, the rest of his rage subsided.

He looked around the area to see his friends; luckily they were still alive, although they were disturbed by the aftermath. He too felt the same, looking at his blood stained hands with shock. "N-Not again… What have I done?" He fainted, falling head first into the snow from the fatigue.

"James!" they all cried out. They began to run towards him.

"Wake up!" Tilith was shaking him, trying to get him awake.

Vargas leaned close. "Don't worry, he's still alive. He's breathing."

She let out a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness. But what happened?"

Ardin spoke up. "I don't know, but on things for sure, we can't stay here. We need to get back to the Village; he won't be able to recover in this."

"You're right." Vargas replied. '"Is there a way to get back quickly?"

Tilith perked up. "Leave it to me! I'll get Lord Lucius' help!" she began to fold her hands together in prayer, she chanted something inaudible to the units.

"Hold on." Vargas interrupted her.

"What?!" She snapped.

Vargas noticed something glowing in the distance; he walked towards the object and picked it up. It was a gem, most likely dropped by Zephu as he ran away. "Sorry. Please continue."

Tilith mumbled quietly to herself before returning to her chanting. A light began to shine on the party, engulfing them in a warm glow. In an instant, they disappeared, and they were teleported back into the village.

* * *

 **Area Clear? Gem Count 5**


	9. Intermission 1: Searching

Location: Unity Base, a world outside Grand Gaia (Not Elgaia)

…

"Where is he?" A young woman asked herself as she paced around the foyer of the estate that was the Guild's base of operations. Something was on her mind. "This shouldn't have taken more than a day. Could there be something wrong? There is no way that-"

"Something wrong?" a young man, about the same age as her, came in almost suddenly. This startled her.

"Eek! Couldn't you give me a warning before you show up Wallace?"

He chuckled. "I couldn't help myself; I just love seeing that reaction of yours." The young man wore the attire that a typical aristocrat wears, His auburn hair was combed neatly, this, along with his clothing gave him the outward look of a proper gentleman. The only thing that stood out was the goofy grin he had on his face which accompanied the matching childish attitude he had.

"Idiot…" She mumbled to herself before going back to pacing.

"You're worried about him, aren't you?" He inquired.

She stopped and stood silently for a moment. "It's not like him to take this long on a mission, what could have happened to him?"

"You may be overreacting about this; we both know how capable he is on the field."

"I know, but this is different." she said. "We don't know what's going on. For all we know there could be some dangerous activity there. We haven't had a word from him since yesterday."

Wallace stood silent for a moment. "Well, I guess you're right. Knowing the guy, he usually comes back before night fall, if he hasn't returned by now, then either he is really taking his time, or we may have another problem."

The woman began to make her way to the door.

"Wait! Where are you going?" He asked.

"I'm going to see the Professor, if anyone knows his whereabouts, it's him."

"Are you sure you should go alone? I'll follow-"

The woman quickly interrupted him. "No. I'll be fine; besides, we need someone to watch over this base in case something goes wrong."

Before he could say another word, she was already out the door. Wallace shook his head, chuckled to himself and smiled. "Valerie… when it comes to him, you can't stop for anything, do you? Heh. I guess you two are alike. What are we going to do with you?"

…

Location: Secluded workshop, same world.

Within a dense forest lied a small warehouse that served as the professor's workshop; it was a complete mess both inside and out, then again, when has it ever been clean? The exterior was completely rusted and filled with overgrowth. The interior was just as messy. Numerous parts and blueprints were scattered all across the floor, half- completed machines of unknown functions were left around. Wires were also hanging left and right, it's almost impossible to walk around this place without knocking something over or getting shocked by some broken wire. The professor was at his desk, sleeping. The several monitors in front of him were still on, which seemed to serve as the only light source in his small office. He woke up as he heard the main door opened with a loud hiss.

"Oh?" His vision was distorted; no doubt he was still tired from all the research he had to do last night regarding the anomaly that showed up recently. He yawned as he opened his office door and stumbled through the pigsty that was his workshop, knocking over a couple of gears and papers as he did so. The lights suddenly came on, he grimaced. "Oh… couldn't you have knocked first?"

"I'm sorry Professor Janus, but it's urgent." It was a woman's voice.

It took a while for his vision to clear up, he saw a young woman standing by the door. He squinted. Her top was similar to that of a military uniform; she wore a white knee length pleated skirt. She also wore a gray coat over her attire and a matching colored beret over her wavy waist length chestnut-colored hair. On her waist was a long sword in its sheath. Her bright appearance, unfortunately, made it harder for him to keep his eyes open. "Valerie? Let me guess, it's about James, isn't it?" He inquired as he rubbed his eyes.

"I need to know where he is. He hasn't contacted us for a while and I'm worried." She looked very concerned.

"Right…" He yawned. "Well then, follow me. Watch your step." They both trudged through the mess as they made their way to his room, which was luckily not as messy as the rest of the facility. He began typing on his keyboard, all monitors were turned off, save for one, which showed a map. He began searching for any signs that may point to James' location, but to no avail. "I don't know what to say. I haven't had a reading on him since yesterday."

"Well, have you tried searching the area he was last spotted?" She inquired.

"Well…" He scrolled over to one section of the map. He zoomed in, and an image of an old, ruined fort flashed on the screen. "This was where the anomaly was located; he was investigating the area before all readings on him suddenly… vanished."

A look of horror came over Valerie's face. "You don't mean…?"

"I can't say for sure. I know he's not one to kick the bucket easily, but I'm not sure what's going on there. I do know that it isn't dangerous, but still… I can hypothesize that it may be a gateway to another dimension."

Without giving it a second thought, she began to walk towards the door, eager to test out his theory. "Then I'm going there."

"Don't be to rash." He ran up to her and grabbed her by the arm.

"What are you doing? Can't you see-" She was immediately cut off.

"Can't YOU see that you're being reckless right now? You don't have the slightest clue in what were dealing with; besides, it was only a theory, I don't even have a full understanding of the phenomenon! You can't just go in without being prepared, he wouldn't want you to go get yourself killed."

Valerie became a little bit calmer. "Did he say anything before he disappeared?"

Janus lets go of her arm. "He did mention that he saw some kind of gate."

"A Gate?"

"Yes. I warned him not to enter without proper preparation, but he ignored me. He was about to enter to see what was on the other side, but then interference struck and, well, you know the rest."

"Anything else?"

"He mentioned that it seemed out of place."

"Out of place? How?"

"It was large, and that it wasn't attached to anything. He described it as ornate, monolithic. It also looked shiny and brand new compared to the ruins. He felt some strange power from it, and that he felt that someone was calling him."

"Someone calling out to him? I see. I need to check it out, maybe there could be something beyond that gate."

Janus then looked around his office for something. "If you plan to go, then you're going to need these." He then held out his hand, revealing an earpiece and a phone.

"Wait, isn't that his?" She pointed at the phone.

He chuckled. "Yeah. He forgot it in my office, again."

Valerie sighed as she took the items. "Then how were you able to track him?"

He then gave a rather chilling snicker. "Oh I have my ways…."

She stepped back, cringing a little. "Okay then… I guess I'll-"

"One more thing." He grabbed what appeared to be a mechanical cube from his desk and handed it to Valerie.

"What's this?"

"If he is in a different location, this may help me in gaining some understanding as to what may lie beyond that gate. Just who knows what possibilities await us? It's perfect research material!" He had an excited look on his face, anxious to learn the unknown. He quickly regained his composure. "Just be sure you're in a safe place to use it though. Things like that are not easy to make. Just be careful though."

"But that doesn't answer my question."

He laughed. "Patience, my lady. It wouldn't be as fun if I told you now, now will it? But all I can say that the contents of that cube is your lifeline."

She rolled her eyes. "Alright." She quickly put the phone and the cube in her pocket, and put on the ear piece.

"I'll put in the coordinates. Just be sure you tell me before entering, so that I can attempt to re-establish a connection when you do end up going to the other side."

She was confused. "But I may not be in this world, how will that work?"

He gave off that suspicious look again. "Oh, my dear Valerie. I did say I have my ways…"

She stepped back again, looking more nervous than before. "O-okay…"

His expression shifted back to a warm smile. "Well that's settled, I should prep up the teleporter." He went back to his multi-screened computer and started typing something. The low hum from a generator echoed throughout the facility, one of the machines in his office began to activate. It was a large, cylindrical chamber. It was translucent, save for the bases. The whole machine began to glow a faint green color. the door that led inside began to open, and Valerie stepped inside the chamber.

Janus began to recite the usual technical spiel as he prepped up the teleporter. "Systems online, teleporter activated." The generators began to hum more loudly, the glow began to grow stronger, and Valerie slowly closed her eyes. As this was happening, papers were flying all over the office.

He continued, "Coordinates set, initiating matter transfer."

In a matter of seconds, the machine emitted a quick bright flash. As the light slowly dimmed, the of the generator became quieter, and she was gone.

"Whew." He sighed. "I really need to clean this place up." He looked at his now messy office, papers were scattered everywhere. He heard a small beeping noise from his computer and turned to it. He looked to one of the monitors which displayed a map. A small red dot appeared on it. He zoomed in to see Valerie, who managed to get to the location safe and sound.

He then observed the monitor, chuckling to himself. "Now... Let's see what happens next..."


	10. Chapter 8:First Morning and Third Summon

James was tossing and turning in his sleep, all while incoherently mumbling. A scene began to play back in his mind, much like what happened back then.

...

 _Houses were burning, the smell of burnt wood filled the air as smoke rose from them. Corpses lay all over the ground, and the streets were bathed in the villager's blood. Monsters were running around, killing and pillaging whatever they could get their hands on. The setting around him was a tad warped, but it was all too clear. Houses were being torched; some families were still trapped inside, leaving them to be burned alive. Some of them were brought to the center of the village, being rounded up. He heard countless wailing from the victims, all of them crying out for help, for mercy._

 _"Mommy? Where are you?"_

 _"My son! No!"_

 _"No please! I don't want to die!"_

 _"Please let them live, don't hurt them!"_

 _"What did you bastards do to my wife?"_

 _They were followed by more screaming as each of the villagers was executed. People were being killed left and right, regardless of age._

 _Countless cries filled his head to the point where he couldn't take it anymore. He heard another one, this one was close by. He turned to see a woman being stabbed right before his very eyes, his mother. A man was standing in front of her, plunging the sword into her chest. His back was facing towards him, but he knew who he was._

 _He looked towards two children standing beside him who shared the same look of horror on their faces, he barely recognized them as his brother and sister. He couldn't take it anymore; these memories were too much to bear, he didn't want to see any more of it. The house began to shake violently as he saw pieces of the ceiling came crashing down on him. He woke up just as one of the debris was just about to hit him._

...

"Gah!" he shouted, waking up suddenly. He was panting heavily; sweat was falling heavily on his face. He buried his face in his hands. _Not again…_ He thought. _How much more of this am I going to take?_ He looked around his setting to see that he was on a bed, in an unfamiliar looking room. It seemed decent enough, but a little bland as there was nothing else in the room except for a Small bookshelf and a desk in the corner. What did surprise him was that he saw Tilith, asleep in a chair beside him. The situation in itself was awkward, but he didn't want to wake her up. She began to mumble and yawned. _Too late._ She opened one eye to notice James, sitting up, already awake.

"Huh? When did you get up?" She wondered.

He said nothing as he got out of bed and walked to the window. He opened the curtains, letting in some sunlight. It was rather bright, but he still got a good view of the setting. It was familiar to him; it was the Village of The Venturer.

"When... did I get here?" He asked her.

"We brought you here, you blacked out and we were safely teleported here. Are you okay? You looked like you had a nightmare."

"I'm fine…" he looked down, his expression became more somber."You… saw it, didn't you?"

Tilith remained silent; she didn't want to remind him of what happened back at the Snowfield.

He sighed. "I didn't want anyone to see that. I… had no choice. There was no other way to fight them, especially when you guys were…"

She got up. "Well, I know you were just trying to help, if it wasn't for you, we would all be goners."

"You're right…" He looked up. "Where are Vargas and Ardin?" He then heard the sound of swords clashing and some grunts coming from outside. They looked out to see the two of them sparring, no doubt trying to get some practice. He turned over to Tilith. "Why were you here? You're a Goddess aren't you? Don't you have something else to do?"

"You were tossing and turning last night and I got a little worried." She answered.

He looked down again. "I… appreciate the concern. Thank you."

The comment made her blush. "I-it's nothing. Really!" She stammered. "I was only looking out for your safety. After all, you are a chosen one."

 _Chosen one? That's a bit of a stretch._ "Regardless, it was nice of you. It's been a while since I felt such kindness."

She was a bit confused. "A while?"

"Yeah… believe it or not, I have friends."

She was taken aback by what he said. "I'm surprised a man like you has friends. No offense."

He smirked. "We have our share of faults, but they are the most interesting bunch." His expression had a look of concern to it. "I wonder what they are up to right now…"

"I'm sure they are fine." She tried to reassure him.

"Yeah, I know. They are capable of handling things without me but…"

"But…?"

"They know I'm gone, it's only a matter of time before they find me."

"You seem worried about it."

"Not really. They… always have a habit of being able to find me, no matter where I am. Even if I somehow get transported to another world, they'll track me down." He chuckled a little at the thought.

"Then they must be nice people if they are so concerned about you." She giggled.

"Indeed, but…" He sighed. "I tend to get berated by one of them; he took out a small photo from his pocket. It was a picture of James and a couple of other people, most likely his friends.

As he mentioned before they were indeed an interesting bunch in Tilith's eyes. Four other people stood in the picture, two males on the left and two females on the right. One was a young nobleman, who had a goofy grin on his face as he flipped a coin. Another was a young man who looked to be a scholar, he flipped his glasses so as to allow the light shine on them, making him look more intelligent. One of the females wore a hunter's attire, she leaned against a wall with a noticable pout on her face. James stood in the centre, hands in his coat pockets, with a more noticeable smile on her face.

"You smiled?!" She shouted.

"Yes. They were always the rowdy group, but you can't hate them." He then pointed to the woman beside him. Her attire contrasted to James attire. While he looked dark, she was bright. She smiled too, but looking closely, she appeared to be blushing a little.

"Out of all of them, she worries for me the most. There is never a day where I don't hear her scolding me. They were always annoying." He tucked the photo away. "Just don't tell my units this, I don't want to know about this just yet, and it may be a bit embarrassing for me."

"Alright. Well, I will meet you at the Forest of Beasts; Take some time to prepare before you go." She began to walk out the door.

"Wait." He said. "How can I get there? It's going to be annoying to get there by foot. I don't want you to keep waiting."

Tilith began to explain. "Don't worry about that. Those with the ability to cross through the gate can go to places if they can find one. There is one near the village. Unfortunately, due to the war, Lord Lucius can only teleport you to places you have previously explored, the only way to get to other places is to have first set foot in that area, a connection is made when this happens. Once you go far enough, a pathway to another land opens."

"I'm going to assume that the only way to reach Morgan is to first make my way to the Tower of Mistral before heading there. By then the path should open, right?" James inquired.

"You're correct, but there is usually a monster of great power guarding the way, you can't access the next area without defeating it first."

"I see. Thank you for letting me know."

"Not a problem. Just don't take too long okay?" She left, leaving James to freely explore the house by himself.

It wasn't shabby; in fact, it was much cleaner than expected. The setting seemed reminiscent to that of a small cabin or cottage. He left the small bedroom and walked into the small living room. There wasn't much, save for a couch and even more bookshelves. There was a small kitchen conveniently placed next to the living room, set with a table to fit about five people. It was surprisingly spacious than the exterior made it out to be. There was a small sign placed on top of one of the bookshelves. _Please keep the house tidy for any summoner that may be using this place, you are also responsible for restocking the fridge. Please don't steal._ "It's one of those houses…" he muttered to himself. He went back into the bedroom to grab his coat and scarf before going outside. He also noticed that his eye was still unbandaged. He quickly reapplied the bandages that he obtained from one of his coat pockets and replaced the eye patch over his left eye. He walked out to greet his units, who were finished sparring.

"You're finally awake." said Ardin.

"Yeah, I see you two got up early."

Vargas walked up to him. "We need to gain more experience so that things like that doesn't happen again."

James looked down, remembering the incident. "I could have just evolved you, you know…"

"Sorry, I should have taken it from the beginning."

"It wouldn't matter, after all, it doesn't change the fact you would still have an elemental disadvantage. Shall we do it now?"

"Yeah. I can't just stay like this you know, that and Ardin is higher in rarity than me."

"Not my problem." Ardin said nonchalantly.

The group went out into the Prairie to begin the evolution ritual. A magical circle began to form under Vargas as James was concentrating. The fire Nymph from before appears in one of the five smaller circles beside it.

"Are you two ready? Once I do this, there's no going back. "

"Yep!" they both shouted.

He began to close his eyes as the ritual began. _I just hope this works…_

The five smaller circles along with the large one in the center were connected by a larger circle. The nymph turned into a mass of red energy that was immediately absorbed by Vargas. He shouted as a He was surrounded in a Pillar of orange light. The light was blinding, and both James and Ardin felt a strong wind blowing from it. After it was completed, Vargas appeared, looking slightly different than before. His red hair had some orange highlights to it, and his cape was noticeably longer. His armor didn't go through many changes, save for a couple of orange streaks on some of the metal plating and the new spiked shoulder guards he was wearing. His sword was also more of a red color on both the blade and the hilt, and a small chain was now attached to the pommel.

"How do you feel?" James asked.

"I feel stronger now, like I can take on more enemies!" He swung his blade; some fires erupted as he did.

"Good to know. Now, onto the second thing, how much gems do we have?" James looked to his pouch to see how many gems were in at this point, 4.

"Hmm… we still need one more…"

"Think fast." Vargas yelled as he tossed one gem towards him.

He caught it just in time."When did you get this?" He asked

"When you were knocked out, Zephu dropped this."

James looked at the gem and inspected it. "I see. Shall we get to summoning then?"

The group stayed where they were as James brought the gems from the pouch. They once again formed a summoning gate if front of him; it was red, much like before. _If I remember correctly, Red means a four star unit, like Ardin._ He tapped the gate, just like back then, formed yet another crack. "Hmm?" He was surprised at the turn of events. The Gate burst, now in a rainbow color. From what he learned from his conversation with Karl, had a chance of summoning a five star, maybe even a six or seven-star unit.

James was surprised. "Well... I didn't expect myself to get this lucky today."

The gate swung open as a rainbow colored light came from it. Everyone was waiting in anticipation as they see another figure emerge from the gate.

…

"…What? You Summoned Me? Wow… I'm so happy that you need me…" They heard a shy voice coming from the newly summoned unit. The voice sounded high, almost like a squeak. As the light began to fade and the gate disappeared, they looked to see who it was. They saw a petite girl in front of them. Her wavy hair was a light green color. She wore a dark, frilly dress; it was decorated in such a way that made her look like a princess. She wore a red ribbon tied into a bow on her dress, a single rose rested on her head, the small thorned vines on her head helped keep it stable. She wore bright red high heeled shoes and black and blue striped stockings. She had an overall doll-like appearance, but there was one feature that stood out from the rest: her eyes, which had a dark gray sclera and blue irises. It didn't faze James, but to Vargas and Ardin, it was very unsettling.

The group looked at her with a mixed feeling of both confusion and anxiousness. James felt an ominous power coming from her. _Such power coming from a girl her stature…_ He thought. _What is she? She can't be human..._ He tossed his suspicions aside as went up to her to greet her.

"What's your name?" He asked in a calm tone.

The unit stepped back, looking very nervous as she did so. She was trembling, he knew why. Upon further inspection, he noticed that she had a dagger on her. He needed to be cautious; he didn't want to set her off.

James sighed. "I'm not going to hurt you. I promise."

To her, the comment sounded rather dubious coming from him. She kept moving back. A man wearing such dark clothes couldn't possibly be this nice. He might manipulate her, just like others before him. "How can I trust you?" She asked.

James sighed again. He proceeded to remove his coat and passed it on to Ardin.

"Why are you giving me this? He asked.

"Turn it inside out."

He did so, revealing that the jacket had a set of throwing knives inside, as well as a couple of boxes containing ammunition for his revolver, and for some reason a trilby hat. It also held a set of grenades of various uses in it, as well as one larger knife, most likely used for close combat. To the units, they looked somewhat familiar.

"Man, you are really prepared!" Vargas exclaimed.

James said nothing as he removed his revolver from its holster, passing it to Vargas. He raised his hands up. "That's all, I swear."

"Everything?" She asked.

"I have a sword as well but..." He felt a bit ashamed for saying it, but he had no choice. "It's not on me at the moment." He put his hands down. "I would like to know your name, that's all I ask."

She still felt a bit suspicious, but he willingly showed what kind of weapons he had, normally most individuals wouldn't think of doing that, not unless they had something up their sleeve. Still, she was not able to see a flaw in his speech; he remained the same throughout, even admitting the fact that he had another weapon on him. He also had not made any aggressive movements as of now. "Tora…" She said softly.

He went up to her and extended his hand, offering her a handshake. "My name is James. The two behind me are Vargas and Ardin, my companions. It's a pleasure to meet you." He said.

Reluctantly, she shook his hand. Contradicting what assumptions she had on her new summoner, she felt slightly relieved. His grip, it wasn't tight or anything, it wasn't even the slightest bit weak either. It had the right balance of firmness while remaining tender to the touch. Even though it didn't look like he showed it, she had the feeling that he felt the same way.

She felt embarrassed to say it, but she wanted to give somewhat of a good impression. She wanted to be a little formal. "It's nice to meet you… Master" She bowed, trying to hide her embarrassment.

James was taken aback by this comment. "M-master?" His units didn't know it, but he too felt a bit embarrassed. He, in his entire life, had never been addressed in such a manner before. But still, to have the feeling that someone serving him… it was never something he liked. He then put his hand over Tora's shoulder. She looked up.

"You don't need to be so formal. You can just call me James."

"But…" Tora was confused. She had been so used to the idea of referring to her masters in such a way, as she did hail from the realm of the gods at one point, but then again, all they did was ostracize her for her attitude. This was the first time anyone had shown genuine kindness to her, unlike her previous master…

"It's fine. You don't need to think of it as a servant-master relationship, think of it as being friends. We are all equal, no matter who or what we are."

She didn't know what to say. He, a human think of a disciple like her as an equal? Gods and Disciples alike would find this comment foolish and appalling, but not her, who was long considered an outcast compared to the rest of her kind. She tried to find a single hint of a flaw in his speech again, but she couldn't. Not a single trace of this being an act was seen on his face, only seriousness in his eyes. He really wanted her to trust him. She may as well return the favor.

She blushed. "Thank you… James." She said quietly. He gave off a small smile in return, which made her blush more.

After everything was said and done, James turned back to his other units. "Let's head back to the village, we need to prepare before continuing our journey."

As they were walking, Vargas walked up to James.

"Do you mind if we chat for a moment?" They distanced themselves with the others, still walking at the same pace.

"Ardin and I were talking about Tora, we don't know if we should trust her."

"Why?" James wondered.

"Have you taken a closer look on her? She seems rather suspicious."

James sighed. "You guys said the same about me; it should be no different with her."

"Yes, but still, we don't know much about her, and I'm not one hundred percent sure that we can trust her yet."

James looked towards Tora, who was far behind the group, keeping some distance while fiddling with her dagger. "I know. I've felt something odd about her. I'm doing my best to make sure she feels comfortable in the group. I don't want to set her off. I don't know what she's capable of either; please don't do anything that might make her feel uneasy."

"Alright." Vargas said, slightly reassured.

After a few minutes of walking, they made it back to the village. They stopped in front of the house they were just staying in before. James turned around and faced his units. "I need to do a little something here, do you mind if you stay outside?"

None of them were sure what this "something" was, but they agreed.

"Feel free to chat amongst yourselves; try to get to know each other." He entered the house and closed the door. James walked towards the kitchen and opened the fridge; he was surprised with what he saw. Surprisingly, it was fully stocked, filled with many possible ingredients he may use. He smirked. "Well, let's see what I can't make out of this…"

In the meantime, the units were still outside, an awkward silence filled the air as everyone waited for someone to say something.

Vargas decided to break the silence. "So… Tora, right?"

She nodded silently.

"I guess he already told you about us, didn't he?"

"Yes…"

Another awkward silence.

Tora began to speak up. "James… You have been with him longer than I have. What kind of person is he?" She wondered.

The two stood still for a moment, still remembering the events that transpired yesterday. They didn't want to tell Tora about it, but they did know other things about him that may be useful to tell her.

Vargas spoke up first. "He can really hold out on his own in a fight, whether he fights solo or with others, you can always count on him."

Ardin also joined in. "He's also not that bad a guy to talk too. Doesn't matter who you are, he'll do whatever he can to be friends with you, heck he even dared me to kill him, if that meant he can get me to trust him."

Tora's eyes widened with surprise from Ardins words. "He really did?"

"Yeah. I actually left a really small cut on his neck, and he didn't even flinch. He didn't hold a grudge on me either. He's one reckless guy, but you can't really hate him."

She was rather surprised. She then began to think to herself. _From what they told me, he is very trustworthy, but… I'm still not entirely sure if what they're saying is true._ She then shook her head. _No, I can't doubt him; he might get mad, or worse…_ Her head was filled with possible punishments she may suffer; her train of thought was broken when he heard James' voice.

"Okay, you three can come in now!" he shouted from inside the house. The units walked into the house, only to smell something wonderful.

"Something smells good." Vargas said.

"I'll say. where is it coming from?" Wondered Ardin

They turned towards the kitchen to see the table, plates and utensils neatly set. There were two bowls, one containing omelets, the other a salad. The strangest sight was that they saw James in a plain white apron, this completely contrasted the dark gray dress shirt and black dress pants he had on right now.

"What the hell are you wearing?!" shouted Vargas, trying not to laugh. "Not just that, you can cook?"

James had a sort of blank expression on his face. "I know units have no need of food, but I wanted to make sure everyone felt ready before we continue our quest. Is there a problem with that?"

"No, it's just very unexpected, knowing you and all."

James sighed. "There are lots of things you don't know about me. You could have just asked."

The units weren't sure what to think at this point, should they be surprised, or afraid. The answer came in the form of Ardins stomach rumbling.

"No point in complaining now. Let's see how this is." They all took a bite, they were all shocked. As if they couldn't get anymore surprised, the food tasted good.

"Man, this is good!" yelled Ardin.

"Agreed!" Vargas replied.

The two began stuffing their faces, while Tora quietly ate her food in peace. She had to admit, it was delicious. She noticed James sitting on a couch, eating breakfast on his own. She walked up to him, plate in hand.

"D-do you mind if I sit here?" she asked.

"Go on ahead. Just don't make a mess, okay?"

She sat down on the couch beside him. Looking more closely, she did notice a slight cut on his neck, validating Ardins claim. "I didn't think you could do such a thing."

"There are many things you don't know about me, but then again neither do they. I don't how I do well in such things; I guess I inherited it from my mother."

 _Mother_ , a human term. She knew what it meant, though she never fully understood it herself, but she decided to try to keep the conversation going. "She must have been a nice mother."

James stopped eating, setting his plate on the table in front of him. His expression became sadder. Tora notices this and quickly became concerned. "D-did I say something to offend you?" she asked.

He shook his head. "No… I'm just, feeling a bit nostalgic, that's all."

She wasn't sure what to think of the situation, by mentioning his mother, she made him sad, did something happen to him? No, she didn't want to press any further questions; it may be a sensitive topic to him.

He quickly finished the rest of the food on his plate before getting up. "I'll get these plates washed, as he looked over to Ardin and Vargas, who looked to be completely satisfied.

Tora got up as well. "I can help you with-" she was quickly interrupted.

"It's fine, I can handle it myself, why not wait outside until I'm done?"

She nodded and did as she was told without a word. A stream of thoughts began to fill her head again. _Did I mess up again? Is he mad at me? What's he going to do?_

Vargas and Ardin walked out to see Tora in a dilemma.

"Hey? Are you okay?" asked Ardin.

Tora let out a quick yelp as she didn't notice the two other units standing behind her. "I-Its nothing!" She said, trying to hide her fears.

"Okay then."

After a few moments, James walked outside and met up with his squad. "Alright, we need to get back to the Forest of Beasts. We can't keep her waiting." They began walking.

Vargas spoke up. "By the way, did Tilith tell you about-"

"Yes, she told me about the gate. It should be close to the village…"

He looked ahead to see a gate like structure ahead of them. Unlike the gate he saw during summoning, this looked more ornate. It had more of an arc than the summoning gate, which was rectangular. It began to open as the group began to approach it. It was dark, nothing can be seen beyond but an endless void.

"Now I'm not entirely sure if this is safe…" Ardin said.

"Did she mention anything about how it works?" James asked.

"Just close your eyes and concentrate on the location, she says. That was it."

James was slightly doubtful, this vague description didn't help all that much. For all he knows, it may end up sending them to the wrong location. Still, it was either a failed teleportation, or walk all the way there. They had no choice; they just need to hope for the best.

"Let's go, everyone. Remember, we need to get to the Forest of Beasts. Just remember that name, and we may end up getting there."

"Are you sure…?" Tora was worried.

There was a sense of uneasiness in his voice. "I don't know, but we may as well try."

They began to jump in one by one. James went first, then Vargas, then Ardin. Tora was a bit hesitant at first, but ended up jumping in. The gate began to shut as she did so. They all closed their eyes and prayed that they would reach to their desired location.

* * *

 **Seems like a long filler, but at least I managed to introduce a new party member. I also felt like changing the atmosphere for this chapter for a more relaxing feel.**


	11. Chapter 9: Sympathy

Unlike the previous crossings through the gate, this one was more, with a lack of better words, turbulent. Instead of walking on solid ground, the party saw themselves falling from the sky, plummeting straight towards a forest below. Fortunately, the height was not far up as to kill or seriously injure them. "Oof!" James exclaimed as he landed on the ground, still upright. His legs hurt a little from the landing. Vargas and Ardin weren't as lucky. Vargas landed face down on the ground while Ardin was hanging on a tree, his wings caught on the branches. There was one missing.

"Where's Tora?" He wondered. At that moment he heard a shrill scream above him. He looked up to see Tora, still falling. He began to pace around, trying to see if he can try to catch her safely, but at this level, he couldn't do so without getting the both of them hurt. He quickly began to pace around to position himself underneath Tora, catching her safely before she could hit the floor. She opened her eyes to see him cradling her in his arms. She blushed heavily at the sight. Seeing this, he let her down gently.

"Nice catch" Vargas said as he got himself up.

"Oh cr-" Ardin fell off the tree and landed on his back. "Ow… that hurt." He walked up towards the rest of the group. "You think we made it?"

James looked around. They were in a forest, that much they knew, but was it the right one? In the distance, he could barely make out the snowfield beyond the trees. This was odd, as the area they are currently in was warm. Still, at least they made it to their location in one piece.

"Heeeey!" a voice shouted. They instantly recognized the voice as Tilith's, as she sprinted towards the group. "You aren't late this time." She remarked.

James scratched his head. "Well… I did have some time to prepare, but I didn't want to make you disappointed."

"That's considerate of you." She smiled. "I see you also evolved one of your units." She looked at Vargas, who smiled confidently. She then noticed the new unit, who was behind James, her eyes widened with curiosity as she looked into Toras eyes. "Do you mind if we talk for a second?"

"Okay." He turned back to the group. "I'll be back in a few moments." She then pulled him away from the group. Her face seemed to have a mixture of concern and anger.

"Do you know what she is?" She asked him.

"I have a feeling you do." He scratched his head, feeling somewhat oblivious.

"She's a Disciple!"

 _Disciple_ , that's what Tilith was. If Tora herself was a disciple, which God did she serve? The way she announced that showed that the term may have a different meaning in this world. "Disciple… I'm going to assume that it's not just a title, isn't it?"

"In a way, it is. Disciples are those that serve the gods, but they are much more different than humans. They are much more powerful, can live longer, and some are just as prideful as the Gods they serve."

He then thought for a moment. "If she is one, then who does she serve?"

"I don't know… I can tell she is one, but as to who is her master, I don't know. But what I do know is that you should be careful around her!"

James took another moment to think. "I summoned her. The fact that I did means she must have played a part in the war. I don't know what her role is either, but I don't want her to make her feel uneasy. I'll figure it out, but I can't just ask her straight."

Tilith thought for a moment and nodded. "I trust you. Just don't let your guard down, okay?"

He nodded.

"The next location is the Magutagal Wetlands. I'll go on ahead, Just don't get yourself killed, alright?"

"Are you sure? You can still come with us if you want."

"I'll be fine." She smiled. "It's not like last time, so it'll be alright." She left, leaving James with his units.

"What did she say?" asked Ardin.

"The next location is just up ahead, let's proceed with caution as we go through this forest, I don't want anyone to get lost." James responded.

The forest was yet another drastic setting from the snowfield. It was rather calm, they could see the sky, it was clear; a gentle breeze blew through the area, making some leaves rustle as it did so. Overall, it seemed very relaxing, but at the same time, it was very unsettling. It was too calm, too quiet. This would have been the perfect opportunity for a monster to take advantage of one's false sense of security. They were all on guard, preparing for the likelihood of an ambush. After a while, a mossy emerged from one of the bushes. Unfortunately, this brought the attention to other monsters, more slimes, and mandragoras. The monsters were appearing from all around. The group found themselves completely surrounded.

"What do we do now?" Vargas asked.

"We have to hold our ground. Vargas! Time to test out that new form of yours!" James shouted.

"Let's go!" Shouted Vargas. He began to charge at the enemies, cutting them down in a single strike. He was faster and stronger than before, even if these enemies didn't have a type disadvantage the change was still noticeable.

"Hey! Don't think I'll let you have all the fun!" Ardin followed suit and killed a couple of monsters himself. James came in soon after, drawing his sword.

Tora stood there, gazing at the three men. She felt very intimidated, they were all quite violent, especially James. The man she saw before was different to the one she saw now. She didn't know what to say, she never expected a man like him to be this ferocious in battle, she had the thought he would be calmer and level-headed. She felt scared at the sight. She was so distracted that she didn't see the mandragoras appearing beside her growing.

"Eep!" She began to back away, pointing the dagger at them. "S-stay away!" She never did like the idea of fighting; she hated the sight of death, especially if she was the cause of it. Those who fight tend to become monsters, always happy at the thrill of combat to the point of insanity. She didn't want to become like that, had she knew she would have situations like this; she would have just stayed behind. She could have told him that, but she was too afraid. "I… I CAN'T DO THIS!" she shouted.

Back at the now turned battlefield, the trio stopped as they hear Tora scream. They turned to see her running away from a couple of mandragoras.

Ardin felt disappointed. "You summoned something good, only to know she is a coward. Oh what Joy."

"Stop it." James rebuked him. "She needs help. You two hold your position until I come back. You guys can do that can you?"

"These guys?" Vargas perked up. "This should be child's play!"

"Good. If I don't come back, you guys know how to find me."

"How?"

"When I shoot. It should be loud enough for you guys to hear it." He then ran off, leaving the two to fight the monsters.

The two were back to back now, surrounded by the monsters.

"How about we make this interesting?" said Vargas.

"How?" wondered Ardin.

"Let's see who can take down the most monsters, loser sleeps outside."

"Alright, it's a bet."

The two had childish smiles on their faces as the competition began.

…

Meanwhile, Tora is still running away, the two mandragoras still following her. "NONONONONONONONO!" She shouted. She then tripped on a lone root, falling face first into the ground. When she looked up, she saw a burly man in front of her. He had an axe in his hand, this greatly scared her.

"Lost are we?" he said in a scruffy voice.

She began to back away, sweating heavily as the man walked closer.

"It looks like you can sell quick buck." He continued to advance towards her; other monsters began to follow him as well. The two mandragoras from before also appeared behind her, she was completely surrounded.

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" She screamed at the top of her lungs. At that moment, the aura around her became stronger, thorned vines began to erupt from the ground underneath her, reaching high into the sky, dancing around Tora like a whirlwind as it acted like a protective barrier.

"What… the hell…?" The man looked up in fear, clearly intimidated by the attack.

The vines quickly shot back down, hitting all that got in the way. Screams filled the air as the bandit and monsters recieved substantial damage and various status ailments from the attack. As the vines sunk back into the ground, the monsters along with the bandit were on the ground in agony. Tora's eyes widened as a look of horror came across her face upon seeing what she had done. "N-No…" she whimpered. She then ran off, tears now streaming down her face as she tried to run away from the carnage she had created.

…

James in the meantime was still looking for Tora, yelling her name every few seconds, every attempt was met with no answer. "Tora! Where are you?" He shouted again. He then sighed. The forest was simply too dense. He looked down to see any footprints he can find. He saw some rather wide ones, it could have been hers. He also noticed two sets of very small indentations on the ground along with it; it could have been the tracks of the mandragoras that were pursuing her. He then felt the ground shake. A loud noise that sounded like something burst out of the ground followed by some screams came with it.

"What the hell is going on?" He ran off to find the origin of the disturbance, only to meet quite a gruesome sight.

Assorted mossy's and mandragoras were on the ground in pain, some were twitching slightly, some were discolored and were coughing due to poison, some had simultaneous symptoms. It was a horrible sight. _Is this her work? Could this be what she is capable of?_ He saw a man on the ground, what he can assume to be a bandit, groaning in pain.

"I shouldn't have messed with the girl." He said.

Knowing who he was talking about, James leaned in close. "Where is the girl?" he asked.

He pointed straight ahead. James began to walk off before being grabbed by the ankle by the injured bandit.

"Please… Have mercy, I don't wanna die like this…"He coughed. James pulled some antidotes, cures, and stimulants.

"Take these; I don't want to euthanize anyone today." His expression turned more serious. "Lay down your arms, and pray that you do not cross my path again." He began to stand up and walk away.

"Thank you." He along with some of the monsters began to drink from the bottles as James proceeded deeper into the forest.

…

"That makes twenty!" Ardin shouted as he sliced a couple of mandragoras.

"Twenty-two!" Vargas yelled as he sent a Mossy flying to another one, knocking them both out.

Ardin kicked a Mossy away as it tried to bite him in the leg. "You didn't kill them!"

"But at least they won't be attacking us anymore!" Vargas responded as he tosses the mandragora away from him.

One of the mandragoras began to utter a loud screech; the surrounding slimes began to back away as the other mandragora joined in. Ardin and Vargas began to cover their ears.

"These things won't shut up!" Ardin shouted, but his voice was drowned out by the noise.

Vargas looked around him. They seemed to be standing in a circle, as if trying to trap both him and Ardin. He looked up and got an idea as to why. "Incoming!" He kicked Ardin as he jumped back, just in time to dodge a small volley of arrows. Vargas began dodging arrows, but with the mandragora screeching at them, it will be hard to counter attack. Arrows seem to be coming in from all directions as the pair tries to avoid them.

Ardin tripped on one of the mandragora, interrupting their little chorus as they began to back off. "Beat it!" He flapped his wings with great strength, sending all of them flying. "There! No more annoying plants! Where are you?!" Ardin shouted as he raised his katana. The pair began to back up into each other as they looked around.

"Wherever our assailant is, they're using the cover of the trees to catch us by surprise.

"That all?" Ardin said as he flapped his wings again, the trees began to rustle as leaves were suddenly ripped off their branches. The pair spotted something moving at the corner of their eyes. A shadow jumped into one of the other trees as it began firing arrows again.

"You're not getting away!" Shouted Vargas as he began cutting down trees, in an effort to get the enemy out of hiding.

"You're doing it all wrong! You have to go like this!" Ardin quickly dove into the trees and swung his sword, forcing the assailant out of hiding. The intruder landed behind Vargas, revealing himself to be that of a green haired male archer. He spun around as he drawn his bow, preparing to unleash another salvo on the units.

"Round two?"

"You're on!"

…

As James walked, he noticed something strange ahead. As he began to get closer, he was shocked at what he found. In the clearing was a large dome formed by thorned vines. He never thought he could come across such a thing in his life. He heard soft sobs coming from within. He instantly recognized the voice.

"Tora…" He said softly.

Inside the dome, she looked up. She didn't want to look at him, she felt unworthy to grace him with her presence. He may have already seen what she had done.

"Don't look at me!" she shouted. She resumed sobbing.

James sighed as he sat beside a nearby tree. "So that was your power? Manipulation of plants and inflicting ailments on others?"

His assumption was accurate. The way he said it made her all the more afraid. She kept sobbing.

"Normally, I would be scared of that, but coming from you, I have no reason to be. I can completely understand your pain."

She lessened the volume of her sobs as she heard it. "What… do you mean?" She asked between sniffles.

James thought for a moment on how to properly approach her. He leaned back on the tree more. "It wouldn't be a surprise if I told you that I am a mercenary, right?"

She kept crying, only softer. She wasn't surprised with what he said. He did look like one, but it didn't make her feel any better.

"You're probably thinking that I may be in it for the money, right?" he asked. Tora nodded as her response. "I don't do it for that reason; rather… it's kind of complicated."

"Complicated? How?" Tora sniffed.

"I guess… you can say it was for personal reasons." He scratched his head.

Tora stopped crying as she got a little curious. James seemed a little depressed, looking as if though he remembered something he shouldn't. "Are you okay?" She asked.

James quickly shook his head as he tried to shake the feeling away. "I'm fine." His expression mellowed a little. He certainly wasn't smiling, but he seemed to be relaxed somewhat, but it wasn't going to fool Tora.

The vines slowly sank back down as she got a little closer. She wasn't crying now. "D-Do you have something troubling you?" She asked.

She saw, and he knew it. _I certainly_ _can't lie my way out of this one… I want to tell the truth, yet I don't want to…_ "Back to what I was saying, I am a mercenary, I still am as of now. But currently, I have no job, except helping that Goddess from before."

"But why?"

"Its… actually difficult to say. Honestly, I still don't know what's going on myself, but I digress. I can completely understand your situation Tora."

Tora looked down. "Forgive me for saying this, but how can you possibly understand? There is no way a human can understand…"

James leaned back as he sighed. "There are times where I question my own actions."

"Huh?"

"Being a mercenary isn't the best job in the world. It's a profession everyone despised, mainly because most of the people taking this job are either criminals, bandits or other kinds of low-lives… In a way, I was no exception, especially after many years of taking these contracts. Most of them involved killing someone or stealing from others."

She knew for a fact that not every human was good, the term "bandit" and "mercenary" were familiar. "Criminal" and "low-life" were also words she knew on a more personal level. "How did you end up in that job? You could've chosen a different path. Why?"

The expression from before came back as James looked down again.

Tora stammered. "I'm sorry! I-I didn't mean to-"

"It's alright. You didn't offend me in any way. But… that's also something I have difficulty to talk about."

She knew that it felt like a sensitive topic, so she tried to steer the conversation to a different direction. "Okay… but why do you fight? You said there were times you questioned your actions."

"I did. Every mission I took, every life I've ended, I continue to question myself whether or not it was the right thing to do. There were times where I can spare my target, but for the most part, violence was my option." He looked up, still with that somber expression. "In the end, I fight not because I wanted too, but because for the most part, I have no choice."

Tora continued to listen, examining his speech to see if there were any traces of error in them, so far nothing.

"Betrayal was common in the field too, many a time where I would get stabbed in the back, both figuratively and literally speaking." He rubbed his side. "It didn't matter to me, though. It was only natural."

Tora looked down again, still wondering about the credibility of James' back story, the story felt hard to believe, seeing as her summoner looks quite young, but his facial expression matched his voice, there was no way he could have been faking it.

 _I suppose that's enough information about me, I better stop now._ "Ah, sorry. I rambled on there." James apologized. "Here I am trying to help you, and I end up talking about myself."

"N-No! It's fine! But... why are you telling me all this?"

James looked to the sky. "I want to help you, but to do that, I wanted to see if we could be honest. I know how scared you must be feeling, so I wanted to see if I can make you comfortable at least, though I think my story is anything but comforting."

She thought the same as well, but since he was being honest she felt somewhat safe to be with her summoner. He didn't run, nor did he show any hostility thus far.

James then looked towards Tora with concern in his eyes "What can you tell me your past?" He asked in a calm tone. "That is, if you want to. If you don't feel like it, then I won't force you too."

She was hesitant. She felt reluctant to talk at first, but from the way the conversation was going, she felt compelled to tell her story. Her eyes slowly filled with tears as she began.

"I was hated… by the Gods. They thought I was too cowardly. They said I had great power… but I can never use it. I was too scared. One god helped me… scared the other gods and gave me a home… I was so happy…" Tears streamed down her face as she continued. "But then I learned he only wanted to use me for my power, just like the others. I didn't want to do the ritual… I just couldn't… He threw me away… Calling me… 'useless…'" She began to hiccup a little as she tried to stop herself from crying again.

James leaned back to process the newfound information. She had quite the past, being ostracized and manipulated. He couldn't help but to feel sympathy for her, he knew the feeling of being used. In a way, they were quite alike. "Do you remember what that god looked like?" he asked, still in a relaxed tone.

The memory was too blurry, she could remember the events, but she couldn't remember his face. But she could remember his voice, the very memory of it made her shudder.

" ** _You sorry excuse of a disciple…_** _"_

Remembering those words made it even harder to hold back her tears, her sniffling and hiccups were more audible now. James noticed this and quickly pulled her into an embrace. It got her all flustered. "Wh- What are you doing?!"

"I can't stand sitting idly by when one is suffering." He responded. "Just because we're all feeling doubts or carrying some sort of burden, it doesn't mean you have to go through it alone."

Tora sniffed a little, she was on the verge of crying.

James gently patted her on the back as he began to whisper. "If you need to cry, don't worry about it. I'm here."

She began to weep as she tightly tugged on James' coat; all the while he kept patting her and continued whispering. "Let all the pain wash away, I will carry your burdens with you."

His units finally showed up, unknowingly walking in into their little moment. "Let's not disturb them." Vargas whispered, and they stayed off to the side.

After a few minutes of crying, she finally stopped. He was still holding her shoulders. "Do you feel better now?"

She nodded, wiping away the last of her tears. He smiled in response. She felt a slight sense of comfort that she was not the only person who experienced what she had. They were used for their skills, and both were seen as outcasts by others. Even though he killed more people than she ever could, she knew he felt guilty about it. He acknowledges the fact he had killed people and takes full responsibility for his actions. In her eyes, he was at least honest and nice enough to give her a reason to trust him. _My life may not have ended in a happy ending, but I can work on making one now_. She hadn't felt genuine kindness in a long time, not like this.

"You're not useless. I can understand everything you went through, there's no need to be ashamed to feel scared."

"Y-Yes…" she replied.

"If you need any help, don't be afraid to ask me or my units. Like I said before, you're not alone. I won't force you to do things if you don't want to; I want to make sure everyone is feeling comfortable. So for now, just smile."

Tora uttered a soft giggle as she did what he requested and smiled. Seeing this made him feel a little better, knowing he was able to make someone smile again. He couldn't help but smile himself, albeit a rather faint one.

Realizing that the two finally returned, James turned to see his units, realizing that they were there. "How did you guys managed to find us?"

Vargas replied, "It wasn't hard to track you guys. All we needed to do was follow the crying." Tora tensed up at the comment.

"Ah, I see. And i assume you two had some fun back there?

"Yeah." Answered Ardin. "I won."

"Hey, who was the one that saved you when you were being pelted with arrows?" Vargas shouted.

"Alright, it was a tie; he killed an archer while you were gone."

"An archer?" James inquired.

"Yeah, another one of Maxwell's pawns. It was annoying, but at least Vargas got rid of him."

Vargas chuckled. "It's nothing; this new evolution really helped me out. By the way, Here!" He tossed a gem. James stuffed it in his pouch shortly afterward.

"Yeah, but it didn't make you anymore humble." Ardin smirked.

"What did you say?" Vargas raised a fist.

Tora giggled. They turned to face her. "Thank you… I'm glad to be with a summoner like you. I'm so happy!" She ran up to hug him. The two other units snickered at the sight. James sighed as he patted her on the head.

"I wonder what the goddess will think of this…" Ardin whispered.

James heard this and realized something. "Oh no, I forgot! Let's get moving. We can't keep her waiting again." He ran off; with Tora still wrapping herself wound his left arm.

Vargas chuckled. "Whatever he did, I think he made her happy."

"Yep." said Ardin. "I think in a way he feels the same way too." He looked ahead. "Wanna race? Three, Two…" he quickly glided off at two, leaving Vargas behind.

"Damn you! You have wings!" Vargas complained as he chased after him.

* * *

 **Area Clear! And one of the units finally warmed up to the party.**

 **Gem Count: 1**


	12. Chapter 10: A Shocking Skirmish

_What's with this world and its drastic changes in scenery?_ James thought as he made his first step in the Magutagal Wetlands. The name in itself was a mouthful., it was a miracle he would even say the name in his head correctly. As its name states it was a wetland, the air felt rather heavy and humid, the sound of countless insects buzzing throughout the area added on to the ambiance. Unfortunately, there was no easy way to cross this area without trudging through the muddy ground. Adding onto their problems, it was raining, lightning flashed in the sky frequently, and so did the roaring booms of distant thunder. This made Tora jump and cling on to James. They noticed Tilith up ahead, appearing to be ranting about something. They walked up to her to see what was going on.

"Hey." James called out.

She turned to see the squad. "Oh! You guys are finally here!" She ran up to them. "Augh, the air is so humid! What's with that?! It makes me feel so sticky!" She ranted. The male units were doing their best not trying to laugh. James merely sighed at the sight.

She then saw Tora, who was wrapping herself onto James' left arm. She knew he would do something about her, but this was a little bit too close. She walked up to him. "Do you mind if we talked for a moment?"

"Okay…" He said with a look of uneasiness. "I'll be right back." He said to his units. James softly pried his arm away from Tora as he followed her. "What is it?"

"I know you want to make her comfortable, but isn't this taking things a little too far?" She asked.

James sighed. "I know you told me to be careful, but as of now, she seems trustworthy."

"How so?"

He began telling her about Tora's experiences.

Tilith was a bit skeptical. "Are you sure everything she said was true?"

James nodded. "I can safely say that everything she told me is true, she showed valid signs of her pacifist and cowardly nature." He remembered the mess she caused in the forest. "Believe me, I've seen traumatic experiences, there's no way that could'vee been a lie."

Tilith's expression shifted to a look of pity. "Poor thing… So how were you able to make her talk?"

He stood there silently for a moment; he didn't feel like talking about himself again. Once today was already enough and he would hate doing it again, it was already painful to think about it. "I did say I would figure it out. I'm not just good in fighting, you know. As you know, I am not always aggressive and serious."

Tilith perked up. "Well I'm not surprised. What else are you good at?"

"I know you're curious, but I'm pretty sure it's not the time or place to talk about it right now. Is there anything you have for us?"

She had a sudden realization. "Ah yes! I forgot! I know something that can help you get an edge in the middle of a battle."

This newfound information sounded promising. "What is this technique?"

"Have you ever notice when two units attack at the same time, it does more damage?"

"Now that you mention it, I did."

"I like to call that technique a 'spark'! This makes fighting difficult enemies easier. So teamwork is essential if you want to keep going. So you may want to practice to see how much you can do, it'll take time though to completely master it."

"I see. I this helps. Thank you."

"No problem! Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get out of here. I can't take one more second standing around here!" She ran off before anyone could say anything, leaving the squad to stand there.

"Where to next?" asked Ardin.

"Wherever she was running off to, I'm going to assume she is heading towards the next area."

"Are you sure about that?"

"She always seems to be at the next location, there's no doubt she's there." James looked around for a moment. "Everyone stay close, there may be monsters in the area and Ardin, you may not want to fly around here."

"Yeah… I don't feel like being target practice for lightning."

The group trudged through the muddy water of the wetland, it felt rather disgusting, and they were not entirely sure if their shoes would somehow get caught in the mud. Up ahead, they saw a wooden platform, forming a bridge above the murky ground. They sighed in relief as they began to climb up on the platform. Some trees were seen around the area, but from where they were standing, the area was wide open, leaving them susceptible to lightning strikes. Monsters, namely yellow slimes appropriately named sparkys as well as some harpies.

"I guess we have to clear the way again." James sighed before facing his units. "Alright everyone, try to stay low, and please refrain from raising your weapons too high, I can only provide so much healing before I run out of items."

Ardin and Vargas ran ahead while James stayed behind with Tora, who was visibly shaking.

"Are you still afraid?" he asked.

She nodded. "I… don't know if I should fight."

"Then stay close to me, I'll protect you. Remember, you don't have to fight. But if you have to, then close your eyes and don't hold back. Let's go." He then ran towards the fray, blade in hand. Tora ran close behind him. She kept staying low, avoiding both attacks from enemies and James. He had to slow down his movements, knowing he had to escort her. The feeling was familiar, having to be a bodyguard for someone, but he kept those thoughts aside, he had to focus on the battle after all.

He noticed the appearance of lightning became more frequent, it seemed... unnatural. Soon then, one bolt charged straight towards the bridge they were standing on.

"Scatter!" James yelled as everyone jumped off the bridge, and onto the muddy water.

"Oh come on!" yelled Ardin, covered in mud. "As if things couldn't get any worse!"

"You're not the only one." Vargas said, also in the same predicament. "Now I know how the Goddess feels."

James shielded Tora using his coat, preventing most of the grime from getting her clothes dirty. "Are you alright?" He asked, ignoring the amount of mud on him.

"Y-yes." She responded. She noticed how close she was to James and blushed.

The two male units noticed and smirked.

"He's definitely treating her like a little sister or something." Ardin whispered.

James caught wind of this and had a look of sorrow on his face. _Little… Sister…?_ In a way he did feel like he was treating Tora like one, he didn't think about it until now. It felt rather nostalgic, but at the same time, it felt slightly painful. _No… Now's not the time. Not here._ He got up while assisting Tora.

He noticed had a large, gaping hole where the lighting struck the bridge. The blast radius was wide; some pieces of the wooden platform were charred. The way it moved seemed very suspicious, it had to be controlled by some form of magic. He heard the sound of thunder coming from above, and another three lightning bolts formed, this time, it was heading for the group again. He knew mud couldn't conduct electricity, but it would still be hard to move around, no one wanted to go in there. There was one thing they could do.

"Block it!"James yelled

"Are you crazy? There's no way!" Yelled Ardin.

"We have no choice. Either block it or take the hit. It's going to hurt either way! We need to find out who's controlling the lightning!"

The trio blocked the bolts, which dispersed into tiny particles upon impact. None of them felt a thing luckily.

Vargas wondered. "How would you know that someone's controlling these things?"

"Because even though lightning takes the path of least resistance, they normally don't have this much force or this kind of accuracy. We're still in the cover of trees."

"You're right, but then who's controlling them?"

He looked ahead; he saw what appeared to be a group of people ahead. Two were male, one female.

One had an appearance of a pirate, wielding what looked to be a pistol. The other wore some form of a military uniform along with a tattered cape; his glasses carefully perched on the edge of his nose, he assumed he was the leader. The female wore a rather provocative attire, having the appearance of a dancer.

"This the target?" Asked the gunman.

"Yes." Replied the bespectacled man. "This is the one were looking for."

The woman chuckled. "This should be fun."

 _I'm going to assume he's another one of Maxwell's cohorts._ James thought.

"Well, what do we do now?" Asked Vargas.

James thought for a moment. He looked around to see if they could use the area to their advantage. "Vargas, we're going to get their attention. See if we can distract them while Ardin gets them from behind." He looked to Ardin. "See if you could use the water to your advantage."

"Alright." He then glided to the side.

The leader saw this and looked to the gunman. "Grafl, deal with him."

"Got it boss!" Grafl replied. He aimed his pistol at Ardin, and began firing. Instead of bullets, it fired bolts of lightning.

"Whoa!" Ardin quickly moved to the left and dodged the attack. "This is going to take a while."

Grafl chuckled. "Hold still!"

…

James and Vargas ran towards the two enemies. With the flick of the wrist, the leader summoned lightning. They both sidestepped in opposite directions, dodging the attack. They kept moving and attacked the leader, who was able to sustain little damage thanks to his well-timed dodge. He was on his knees, bleeding.

"May! I need assistance!"

"Okay, Weiss!" She replied. She then performed a dance, as she did a light shone on Weiss. His injuries were slowly fading away, and he regained his strength.

"They got a healer…" Vargas said.

"Yeah." James replied. "We need to deal with her first, dispatching her should make the battle easier."

"What about Weiss?"

"Let me deal with him, I'll draw his attention, you can deal with May."

"Okay then."

James pulled out his revolver and fired it at Weiss while Vargas charged towards May.

Vargas took a swing, but she was able to dodge it, due to her flexibility. "Those dance moves aren't just for show, aren't they?"

May giggled. "I don't mind playing a little. Think you can handle my shocking performance?" She began to dance again, this time, several lightning bolts charged at Vargas, He quickly attempted to dodge them, but some were able to hit him; they left small burns on his body.

"I have to get stronger, I'm not going to lose here!" he shouted.

He charged again and swung his sword. She dodged the attack again, but he was still able to land a hit on her, leaving a gash on her side.

"Augh… I guess I was a little too cocky." said May. She prepared to dance again, getting ready to heal herself.

"Were not through here!" Vargas shouted as he attacked again, disrupting her dance. They began to repeat the process of exchanging attacks and dodging.

…

Ardin was still trying to dodge Grafls shots. He was going nowhere. Every time he tried to advance, he would always be pushed back. Even if he did try to deflect the attacks, by then he would be to slow for a follow-up, even with his speed. He couldn't go any higher unless he wanted to be blasted out of the sky by the lightning above. Then it hit him. James mentioned that he had to try to use the water to his advantage. He sure as hell was not going to go in there, but he had another idea. He rushed towards Grafl again, who had his pistol ready.

"I thought you would learn by now. You can't touch me!" he said as he fired yet another burst of rounds at Ardin.

Ardin once again moved to the left and dodged his attacks. When he saw that he was ready to fire again, he quickly flapped his wings to create a gust of wind. Some of the water was blown off by the wind; some rose out of the ground and hit Grafl like a barrage of bullets.

"Gah! I'm not gonna let you get away!" He brought his pistol up and got ready to pull the trigger, but all he heard was a click. "What?" He saw that the barrel was clogged up with muddy water and grime. He looked up to see Ardin flying towards him, blade at the ready.

…

James, having run out of bullets charged at Weiss, who summoned lightning in order to deter him. He tried to deflect them back, but they were too strong, pushing him back.

"Can't you see the weather?" said Weiss. "You should know by now I have the tactical advantage." With yet another flick of the wrist, monsters began to appear, surrounding him.

 _He's right._ James thought. _This could have been easier if it wasn't for the weather. In addition, the monsters in the area have most likely grown accustomed to the setting while we don't. My other weapons are not going to help as much here. We can't get through this unless…_ He looked towards Tora, who looked up at him with a confused look. _She is an earth elemental; she has the advantage here, but... I guess I have no choice._

"Tora… I have a plan, but you may not like it."

"W-what is it?"

He knelt beside her and whispered into her ear. _"When I give the signal, command your vines to trap the enemy, and we will finish them off with a single blow."_

Tora's eyes widened with shock, she felt unsure. "A-are you sure? I… I…"

"You may be the only one who can do this. If we don't, we may not last long out here. I know I said I won't make you do things you don't want to do, but I'm asking now if you can try."

She didn't want to fight, but she didn't want her friends to perish. She also wanted to repay the kindness James had shown her back in the forest. Then again, she was going to have to fight sooner or later, and she didn't want to become a burden to the group. Mustering up whatever courage she had, she nodded. James stood up and looked to both Vargas and Ardin.

"Guys! We need to round them up! Can you do that?" He shouted.

"On it!

"Can do!"

James faced towards the monsters and Weiss, then back at Tora. "I'll go on ahead and get their attention; I need you to concentrate, okay?" He then charged at the enemies, while Tora shut her eyes.

James began cutting down monsters while trying to dodge more lightning bolts while the units did their best to push their respective foes back. Eventually, they were all gathered into one spot.

"Okay, now!' James shouted.

 _I know he is not trying to manipulate me, but I don't know if I can. No, I have to try… they're counting on me!_

The ground began to shake as the aura around her began to grow stronger.

"What's going on?" wondered Vargas.

"Everyone, get back!" yelled James.

"R-Rose Spinel!" She cried as she performed her brave burst. Vines shot out of the ground and began to form a dome on the battlefield, trapping the enemies inside. The vines also held the same purple aura that was found on Tora.

"By the gods…" whispered Vargas.

"What… is THAT?" shouted Ardin.

Inside the dome, enemies began dropping like flies, suffering from numerous ailments. May, Grafl and Weiss began to experience the effects as well.

"Wh- what is this?" wondered Grafl.

"What's going on?" asked May.

"Hmm… an interesting tactic, I should have seen this coming." mused Weiss.

The vines began to sink back into the ground, the enemies were left vulnerable from the attack.

"Vargas, Ardin, Time to finish this!" yelled James. The two units advanced as they yelled their respective brave bursts.

"Flare Ride Plus!"

"Plum Scent!"

The field shook once more as the combined power of the two engulfed the area in a combination of fire and dark energy. The enemies disappeared one by one and their souls were absorbed by James. Weiss, like others before him didn't leave a soul, but a single gem. James proceeded to pick it up.

Ardin walked up to Tora and gave her a pat on the shoulder. "I take back everything I said about you; you're pretty powerful for someone like you!"

Tora felt a bit confused, but at the same time, a bit nervous. "R-really? Is that bad?"

Vargas walked up to her and smiled. "Yeah, I was a bit surprised by that, but I'm glad you're on our side."

James patted her on the head. "If it wasn't for you, we'd be in a bind again. I know that you don't like to do this, but thank you."

Tora felt relieved, receiving praise from her friends. She needed to get used to fighting, but she also didn't want to try not to enjoy it too much as she still felt scared in becoming some sort of battle freak or a burden.

James spoke up. "If you still feel uncomfortable on fighting, you don't have to, but eventually, there will come a day where you have to. Everyone has a reason to fight, but I will say it now, there is no better reason to fight for someone else to you, whether that being a friend, family, or someone you love. If you still feel scared, I'll still protect you."

She felt reassured by his words and nodded. She then looked down again, hiding her face as she blushed.

James looked ahead to see a dirt road again, not muddy. It led to a distant building, but it was too far to make out any details.

"Is that the next area?" Asked Vargas.

James shrugged. "Only one way to find out, let's go."

* * *

 _ **Area Clear! Gem Count: 2**_


	13. Intermission 2: Doubts

**Anon here and I'm back with another "intermission chapter" As always I hope you enjoy it (or not) and feel free to let me know how it is in the reviews.**

* * *

"This should be the place" Valerie looked up at the old fort. It didn't look any different from others she had seen, after all there were many others like this back in the war. _But why would it appear at this particular fort? It can't be just coincidence, right?_ She put her hand to the earpiece. "I'm at the location."

"Good to hear. See if you can't find out what's going on there and bring James back." Janus spoke on the other end. He continued to watch over her from the monitor back at the workshop.

Valerie began her investigation of the fort. Once again, it didn't look any different than the other forts she had visited. The whole area has long since been buried under dust; it flew off with every move she made. Many books were scattered near toppled shelves, and broken furniture can be seen. Some old, worn paintings were hung at an angle, showcasing landscapes and portraits of prominent figures that were stationed here. Skeletons were lying all over the place, still wearing the same armor they wore right before their demise, large gashes on their armor and disembodied limbs detail how they met their end. It was a rather tragic sight, but this was not what she came here for, what mattered right now is investigating the anomaly. As she walked the corridors she felt an odd energy emanating throughout the area. _This energy… It feels strange. I've never felt anything like it._ She thought. _What could be in this place that made him disappear in the first place?_

So far, there wasn't anything of interest she could find. She finished her survey of the ground and upper floors and proceeded to go to the lower levels. _Just as I thought._ The feeling was growing a little stronger with every step she took. She placed her hand on the grip of her sword, which rested in its sheath beside her. She slowed her movements, fearing something would be awaiting her in the corner. She found herself going into the cellar, which stored weaponry, armor and other items used in war. There were also boxes lying around, whose contents Valerie didn't have time to examine. Out in the corner of her eye, she spotted something shining. She turned to see a lone gate standing in the middle of the room, bathing the cellar in its light. It was just as they described it; it stood out from the rest of the setting. Compared with everything else in the room, it looked brand new. It didn't look damaged or anything and it certainly looked ornate. The gate gave off a familiar energy, the same energy she felt when she first stepped in the fort. There was no denying it, this was the source.

"I found the gate you mentioned." She called.

"I see. What can you tell me about it?"

"Everything you told me before. I'm getting a strange feeling from it. I don't know if I should go inside…"

"Well we can't find out by standing there. As much as I would say to wait for backup, it doesn't seem to show any malevolent readings. From observing this thing for a couple of days, nothing else came out of that gate, I can assume that the gate itself doesn't pose a threat, but we still don't know what's behind it."

Valery stared at the door anxiously. "Then what should I do?"

"You have to go inside. We still need data about it and he is still in there. I'll try to maintain a signal and keep a connection."

"But if this is a dimensional gateway as you guessed, wouldn't communication be useless once I've crossed?"

"I told you that cube is your lifeline, correct?"

She took it out of her pocket and looked at it anxiously. "Yes, but you still haven't told me what it does…"

"And I told you to be patient. I need you to use it once you've located James. From there we could obtain some information regarding the gate. It'll save me the time of explaining what it does."

Valerie nodded as she put the cube back. "Alright. I'm going in."

Janus spoke up as she was just about to make a step. "Hang on."

"What is it?" Valerie was getting a little impatient.

"Just because nothing has happened yet, it doesn't mean there isn't any potential danger. I'm giving you 48 hours to locate James and report your findings to me. If you don't respond by then, I'll assume the worst has happened and won't be able to lie to the others for long. So if you don't want any more commotion regarding this, you better get going."

"Understood." The call was then disconnected. She looked at the gate once more, which was still radiating with that strange unfamiliar energy. She began to walk up to the gate and examined it. There was no knob. _How am I supposed to open this thing? Maybe if I just…_ She placed her hand on the door and immediately felt that very energy surge throughout her body. "Guh! What was that just now?" She clutched her head as she began to feel a little dizzy. The floor began to shake as the sound of crashing and clattering of items hitting the floor filled the room. The closed space of the cellar only made things more unbearable for Valerie as she covered her ears. She felt a sudden gust of wind blowing as the gate began to open. A bright light shone from the gap, making it hard to see what was inside. _I have to do this. James… Please be safe!_ She quickly ran into the gate and jumped inside. The Gate slowly began to close after she entered, and the rumbling stopped soon after.

…

 _Back to Grand Gaia…_

The two summoners began surveying a forest, one of the locations that their target was last spotted, other members of the demon slaying division were already deployed and scouting other possible areas searching for him. Unfortunately there was no luck in finding him. Considering the threat he posed, there was no time to waste.

"Intel says he was last spotted here." Karl said as he examined the sheet of paper detailing their lead.

"Yeah, but he may have already left by now." Seria groaned. "Besides, it's not always accurate you know."

"Well we should at least see this for ourselves." They continued walking, weapons raised in the likelihood from attacks by local monsters. "Hang on." Karl raised his hand up, signaling Seria to stop.

"What now?"

Karl looked up to the sky and squinted. "What is that?" In the distance He could spot something falling, no, someone. "Oh no." Karl began sprinting towards the falling woman.

"Hey! Wait up!" Seria too started running to catch up to Karl.

They spotted a lake in the distance, right below where the woman was falling. She landed with a big splash and began sinking, with her beret being the only thing floating.

"Damn." Karl said as dropped his halberd and dove into the lake.

Seria finally caught up with Karl. "What are you doing?" she shouted.

"She needs help!" Karl spoke between breaths. Taking a deep breath he dove deeper into the water, the woman was already far below the water's surface. After being just mere inches away from her he quickly grabbed her hand and began swimming up to the surface. Reaching the water's surface he inhaled to regain some lost air as he began to swim back to dry land, unconscious girl in tow. He carefully placed her face up on the ground and checked for a pulse. "Thank goodness she's still alive, and it appears she's breathing." He sighed with relief.

Seria eyed the young woman suspiciously. "What is she doing there, and where did she came from?"

"I don't know, but I don't think we'll get an answer out of her just yet."

The girl began to moan and her eyes began to twitch.

Karl leaned in a little closer. "Hey. Are you alright?" he asked in a calm tone.

The girl slowly began to open her eyes. Her vision was a little blurry; but she could make out someone in front of her. "Who… are you?"

Karl looked to Seria, who was still looking at the woman with a skeptical look.

"My name is Karl, and that's my friend Seria. What are you doing out here?"

The woman slowly got herself up, but fell to her knees as she was still feeling a little dizzy. "Where am I?"

Karl stood up. "We're currently in the Nocturnal Forest in Morgan."

She picked up her beret and placed it on her head before looking at her surroundings. She clearly has no idea what Karl was talking about.

Seria quickly pulled Karl over to the side. "I know you want to be nice, but don't you find her a little weird?"

"Considering how she appeared, I can tell. Still, we can't exactly jump into conclusions. Let's hear her out first."

"Fine, but don't say I didn't warn you." Seria shrugged.

Karl approached the woman. "Do you mind telling us your name?"

The woman clutched her head as she looked to the pair. "My name is Valerie. I'm… looking for someone."

"Who are you looking for?" Seria inquired.

"I'm looking for a young man with silver hair dressed in a black coat and had an eye patch. Have you seen him?"

Karl knew who she was talking about. "Does that man happen to be named James?"

Valerie's eyes widened. "Yes! Where did you last see him?"

"Last I saw him was back in town, but I think he should be wandering somewhere in Mistral right now…"

"Do you mind giving me some directions?" She walked a little closer to Karl.

Karl pointed to the east. "You'll need to walk quite the distance to get there. Follow the shore and you just might be able to reach to the Magutagal Wetlands."

Valerie bowed to Karl. "Thank you." She proceeded to walk towards the direction Karl pointed to.

"Hold it!"

Valerie turned back to see Seria walking towards her. "Why are you looking for him? Does he mean anything to you?"

Valerie nodded. "Yeah. He's a friend of mine; I'm trying to look for him. He got lost and I'm worried that he might have gotten himself hurt."

Seria crossed her arms. "Do you have any other reason being here?"

Valerie scratched her head. "I know he is out there looking for something, but he never really told me. So now I'm trying to find him and figure out what that something is." She doubts that this was enough detail to make them believe her; then again she was never the one to lie or convince people.

Seria still had a doubtful look on her face, but she shrugged. "Alright, if you say so. Though I should warn you about the monsters in the area…"

Valerie placed her hand on her sheathed short sword. "Its fine, I'm capable of handling things on my own. It looks like you two have your own agenda and I don't want to get in the way."

 _Huh, at least she's somewhat observant. Wait, how did she know we're in a mission?_ Seria thought. "Fine, just try not to die."

Valerie nodded. "I won't. Good luck with whatever mission you have."

"Thanks. Good luck with finding your friend." Karl waved. Valerie then turned around and walked away.

Seria waited for her to be out of range before looking to Karl again. "I still don't like this."

"You still don't think she's telling the truth?"

"Yeah. I think she's not telling us everything. Plus you said James was a summoner. If he was part of the Summoners Hall we would've known."

"Hmm. Now that I think about it, their sudden appearances do seem rather suspicious."

"What should we do about it then?"

"I'm not sure what they're involved in, but lets not wrap out heads around this one. After all, we're still looking for Graham."

"Fine." Seria sighed. "But I'm making note of this."

Karl chuckled. "Alright then. Lets move out."

The two began to walk again as they resumed their mission.

* * *

 **Sorry for the wait. After dealing with exams, I feel a little liberated knowing schools over. Though I also have to deal with graduation this week, so I'm not out of the woods just yet. Summers around the corner, so hopefully this gives me time to update faster. Hopefully. Oh I just hope I didn't butcher Karl and Serias character... *sweating like crazy***

 _ **Also for the followers... (those who just started reading don't need to read below.)**_

 **To those who have been here for a long time, I have edited a couple of chapters. Looking back I think I did poor pacing and executed some events wrong. If you want to know which ones were edited here they are:**

 **Prologue, Chapters 7 and 9.**

 **Let me know how the changes are in the review an for any inquiry let me know by PMing me.**

 **I'm afraid my need to look over and editing is becoming a bad habit of mine...**


	14. Chapter 11: The Ruins

Chapter 11

The exterior of the building was revealed to be that of a ruined temple, the main building was surrounded by five smaller towers, a wall surrounding the perimeter. The whole structure looked worn and was filled with overgrowth, the place was in disarray. Its size dwarfed the squad, making them feel somewhat intimidated. James looked at the entrance, which looked to be already opened prior to their arrival.

"This should be the place." James spoke.

Ardin walked up, staring at the building with a suspicious look. "You sure about this?"

"Do you see any other buildings around here?" James asked.

"Not really."Ardin responded.

"We may as well search the area, maybe she will be here."

One by one, the group walked through a large stone gate. They were taken aback by the interior. The walls and floor were filled with strange markings and patterns, the large columns that supported the temple had the same pattern to them. What was odd was that the area looked to be well maintained, contrasting its exterior. The corridor was illuminated with a strange green light near the walls. Over the wall was a rather small gap; in between was nothing but a bright, pale green light. They looked down to see if it had a source, but it was too bright for them to say for sure. They began to look around for any signs of the goddess.

James looked at his surroundings, looking very interested. "Does anyone know what this place is?"

Vargas spoke up. "I believe that this place is the Ruins of Mirza."

"Mirza? Who's that?"

"I don't know, but what I do remember was that this place was built over a thousand years ago. What was it for, or where the name came from, I have no idea…"

"So, you know the name, but you don't know its purpose?" Ardin spoke up.

Vargas shrugged. "Nobody does. For all I know, it could be a place where people worshiped the Gods before the war."

James walked around for a bit. The halls were empty, and it seemed too quiet. All he could hear was the footsteps coming from him and his units. It made him a little bit unsettled, knowing very well that more enemies might show up. Unlike the forest, the enemies won't be as hard to spot; unfortunately, he and his units were just as noticeable. He looked to Tora. "What about you? Do you know anything about this place?" he asked.

She shook her head. "No. No clue."

James looked ahead. So far, nothing. No monsters, no goddess. Nonetheless, he had his revolver drawn, locked and loaded in case of an attack. The setting was becoming increasingly tense, with every second passing by, the group began to wonder if any enemies might show up. Their footsteps echoed throughout the corridor, it was the only sound present.

Wanting to lighten the mood, James broke the silence. "It seems were in the clear for now, why don't you tell me your pasts? If you don't mind."

Vargas looked at his surroundings before giving an answer. "I don't see the harm in doing that."

The two male units both told their experiences to James as the group walked down the corridor. He paid attention to every detail. He nodded at the end.

"I see… You are quite the passionate warrior, Vargas."

"Thanks, but I still consider myself inexperienced, I kept training hoping I can surpass my father."

James knew that feeling, he felt he could relate to Vargas. He then turned to Ardin. "And I didn't know you went through that hardship. It must have been tough."

Ardin stretched. "Yeah… but it wasn't all that bad. This sword got me through a lot of places, being ostracized for my wings didn't piss me off as much afterward, but they still hurt. I still owe it to that old man for saving me, taking care of me and teaching me how to fight."

James felt a little nostalgic after hearing Ardins past, there were some things he could relate to as well, but he felt a little jealous. If I only had that bravado… Maybe this pain wouldn't hurt as much… James was still curious; they claimed to have some memories missing. He pondered for a moment before asking Vargas. "Is there anything else you can remember?"

"I don't exactly know." Said Vargas. "Though after I evolved, I did remember a bit more of my past." "Really? What did you remember?" "I eventually joined the Order of Agni, the very order my father belonged to. However, I lost in a duel with a swordswoman of another Order."

Ardin laughed at this new found information. "You lost?! To a WOMAN?!"

Vargas looked down. "I felt inexperienced, so I trained some more, hoping that one day that the next time we fought, I would at least match her level of skill. And that's where it ends."

James nodded. I see… He appears that when units evolve, they not only get stronger, but they remember a little more about their past. Interesting…

Ardin, wanting to have his questions answered, then spoke up. "I want to know." James turned to him. "You are very capable of fighting if you can handle the enemy, why did you bother to summon us?"

Vargas turned to James, as did Tora. All three units stared at him expectantly.

James himself was at a standstill. He didn't know how to answer that, there was no answer he can give that may cause some of the units to feel some doubt. He had no prior experience in summoning before now. He had to answer it in the most honest way he could, but for sure there would be some repercussions. "I guess… it's because I wanted to try something new. I was curious as to how the technique worked. I heard of summoning before, but I had no prior experience as a summoner. I took the opportunity back at the prairie to test it out, even though admittedly it felt a bit impromptu."

Ardin had his arms crossed. "So you used the summoning technique as an opportunity to try something new? Sounds like a half-assed reason."

The way he put it was rather blunt, but he was right, it did seem like a stupid reason.

Vargas looked somewhat disappointed; the idea of being summoned as a result of a mere whim made him felt discouraged. Tora also felt the same way, she looked down with the same look of disappointment as Vargas. They both looked up as James spoke up again.

"But…" He continued."I know that the beings summoned from this technique are still living beings, no matter what they are. Whether they are human, monster or spirit, they all have a past, and I want to know more about their origins. I guess in a way I want to see if I can actually help them find closure, that's when I met the three of you. I feel like I can have that chance." The atmosphere between the group felt less tense.

Ardin nodded after getting his answer. "So, what you're trying to say is that you want to understand us a bit more, and to see if you can help us, is that it?"

"I'm not sure how the summoned beings in this world are, but I know that the foundation of summoning was the same."

This got the units curious. It was clear James was a foreigner, but where did he come from? Filled with curiosity, Vargas spoke up. "I wanted to know, what's your back story? What sort of life did you live?" James looked down on the ground, looking sadder than usual. Vargas realized this and quickly apologized. "I'm sorry, I guess it must be a sensitive topic for you. I won't force you to talk about it."

James looked up. "Maybe later… I'm not in the mood to talk about it just yet. I don't think now is the time for me. It's a long story."

Ardin spoke up. "Seems a bit unfair to make us talk about our lives and you won't say a word about yourself. Fine, but don't blame us if your past comes back and bites you in the a- OW!"

Vargas punched Ardin in the shoulder. "Don't. You're going to make things worse." There was something else on his mind, but if James didn't want to talk about his past, there was no chance he was going to talk about what happened back at the snowfield.

Ardin was rubbing his shoulder. "Fine! Damn that hurts…" He looked to Tora. "What about you? What's your story?"

She felt a bit nervous, but she told them her past as well, of being a disciple and how she refused to participate in a dangerous ritual, which resulted in her in being branded a traitor and thrown away. She did not disclose the information on who her former master was, that memory still eluded her.

Ardin looked rather agitated after hearing this, but at the same time felt proud of her courage."Well, your master was an arse!"

She jumped back at the comment, feeling a bit nervous from Ardins tone of voice.

"You are very brave to defy the Gods, I respect you for it!" He grinned as he patted her on the shoulder. Tora felt a bit more comfortable.

"I see. Well, I know I said this before, but it's a good thing you are on our side." Vargas said as he gave her a smile.

After all was said and done, the group continued through the corridor. Unfortunately for them, nothing has changed. The area still had that unnerving silence, it was still empty, and the only sounds present were their footsteps; The goddess was still nowhere in sight. Once again, the silence was broken by James again.

She isn't really here. That's odd… She usually shows up before us. We may as well try to clear the area first before heading out."

"ARGH!" Ardin shouted in annoyance. "This is getting nowhere! If she's not here, we should get out, this place is starting to bore me!" Everyone else stood there with blank expressions on their faces, mentally questioning Ardins sanity.

Vargas chuckled. "You are starting to act like Tilith now."

"Oh shut up!" Ardin retorted.

James sighed. "Can you guys stop talking like that while were out in places like these? You're going to-"He stopped mid-sentence as he heard a strange sound coming from the distance. He squinted as he tried to figure out what and where the sound was. It sounded like a high pitched buzz. He then noticed a couple of lights in the distance. They were rapidly growing; no… something was getting closer. Upon realization as to what the light was, James' eyes widened as he yelled to his units. "Get down!"

And they did so, barely avoiding what looked to be light elemental projectiles. They continued their motion at high speed before hitting the wall way behind them. They could barely hear the explosions made by them as they made impact. They got up as they heard sounds coming from down the corridor. They heard numerous footsteps, and what appeared to be wings flapping. Monsters began to appear from the darkness ahead of them, many creatures began to appear. White slimes bounced forward, following them were a couple of horned horses that James knew instantly. Unicorns…Behind them were a few mages, donned in blue and pink robes, followed behind them. They didn't look like the mages he was normally familiar with.

His eyes began to widen as he saw what else began to appear. Winged humanoids donned in bright silver armor, armed with a shield and sword, making their outward appearance resemble that of a knight. Their appearance, he knew all too well. Angels?!He thought. Damn… Not these things again! To James, seeing them was not a pleasant sight.

Ardin looked to him. "Hey! You alright?"

James shook his head, quickly regaining his composure. Upon closer inspection, he felt the energy emanating off of them were very weak. He felt some relief from that, it would prove to not be as much of a task as he thought.

One of the Angels pointed their sword at the squad."Enemies of the gods!" it shouted. "For your defiance, we will strike you down! Prepare to die!"

James sighed after hearing that. Same contrived lines…They are the same no matter where I go…

Vargas looked to James. "What's the plan?"

The area was nothing more than a long hallway; there was no room to do much except for flying and running. Knowing there was no other option, he gave the command: "Everyone! Charge!"

There were no objections; for sure there was no other plan. Fortunately, there was no thunder getting in the way, and area was very spacious. They could move as they please, with the only barriers being the walls and the ceiling. "YEAH!" the male units shouted as they charged.

James looked to Tora, who was clutching her dagger in her hands. "Do you think you can handle it this time?"

She nodded, looking ahead with a determined look. "I-I'll try."

James looked ahead. "Remember what I said. Just keep calm and you'll be fine." They both then split into opposite directions as they charged towards the enemy.


	15. Chapter 12: (S)Words Can Hurt

**Sorry for the late update. With schoolwork and projects piling up and University preparations, its hard to try to update. Here's another chapter, I hope you enjoy it, or not. Lets me know on the reviews or PM me on how it is.**

* * *

More glowys and angels fell as the party stormed through the ruins. Ardin dealt with the angels, distracting them in order to clear a path. The rest continued to cut down whatever enemies got in the way. By now, there weren't as many enemies present, but some still lingered.

"Vargas! You and Tora keep going. I'll help Ardin." He said while reloading Requiem.

"Alright." He then turned towards Tora. "Let's go, I got your back." They both charged towards the two Unicorns while James covered Ardin at a distance.

"How do you feel right now?" asked Vargas

"I'm… still a bit nervous." She replied.

"You don't need to worry about it, but we should seriously be focused on th- WOAH!" He pushed her aside as they both dodged the oncoming Unicorns. "That was too close!" The two unicorns began to circle back as they attempted to charge at the two again.

Vargas quickly brought his sword up to block the attack. This proved to be a bad move as he quickly felt his body becoming stiff. _Damn it! I forgot these things can paralyze!_ He then swung his sword and pushed the unicorn away before Vargas fell to his knees.

Tora in the mean time was still trying to run away from the other unicorn, the fact that Vargas was down made things worse as the second one began to chase her as well. She quickly stopped running looking to the ground. _No… I have to fight. But how?_ She quickly thought of something. _Maybe if I can slow them down…_ She raised an arm up and pointed to the two unicorns, she commanded the vines to ensnare the two unicorns, stopping them in their tracks as they wrapped around their legs.

Luckily for Vargas, the paralysis was only momentary. He stood up to see what Tora had done. "Nice!" He shouted. He quickly performed a _coup de grâce,_ cutting down both of the two downed unicorns in quick succession. They both disappeared, turning into small white souls, which then were absorbed by James, who was still providing assistance to Ardin.

"Oi! I need some help here!" Ardin shouted as he tried to fly away from twelve angels.

James carefully aimed at the angels that were attacking Ardin, taking the time to hit their blind spot. Each shot was precise; they would instantly disappear as they were hit. The clip was empty, he quickly attempted to reload his revolver again, but three angels had taken notice to this and quickly dove in. James then put Requiem back into its holster and unsheathed Retribution, just in time to block all oncoming attacks and slain the angels.

With half of the remaining angels dispatched, Ardin had little problem with dealing the other three.

"Out of my way!" he shouted as he began flying at the remaining angels performed one slash. Nothing happened and the angels stayed where they were. Ardin then proceeded to slowly sheathe his katana, quietly exhaling until the guard hit the sheath. At that moment, the angels faded away, Ardin then gave a smirk as he descended. He landed just in time as James killed the final angel. "I hate to say it, but thanks for the help."

"It's fine. That is some technique." James remarked. "I presume you learned that from your mentor?"

Ardin scratched his head. "Yeah. Let me tell you, it took me a long time before I perfected it, and I am glad it actually works."

James raised an eyebrow, interested. "Interesting. Maybe you can teach me that some time."

"Why not? I always wanted to see how it would feel like to be the teacher for a change. Though, with that blade, it'll be harder."

Vargas and Tora appeared midway in their conversation.

"We got rid of the other monsters. The coast should be clear." Vargas said.

"I see." Responded James. "How was Tora?"

Vargas beamed a smile. "She managed to be of great assistance." He patted her on the shoulder.

Tora blushed. "It's not a problem. Really."

James looked to the corridor ahead. "Hang on everyone, were not out of the woods just yet."

"Didn't we just go through one a couple of hours ago?" Ardin smirked.

"Very funny."James scoffed.

The sound of footsteps along with the sound of metal clanking echoed through the hall ahead of them. Ahead they see someone emerge from the dark. They spotted what appeared to be a woman coming their way, brandishing what looked to be a lance. She was clad in revealing silver armor, exposing her thighs and cleavage. The lance she held appeared to be that of jousting use, albeit the end being more shorter than he had seen, so he didn't need to worry on range, but he couldn't afford to leave out any possibility as to what she may have up her sleeve. Looking at her appearance, one would think she would be a savior of sorts; this assumption was immediately thrown out as she began to speak.

"So you're the ones I'm supposed to fight? Hah! You all look like a bunch of losers to me." The tone of her voice was condescending.

James stepped forward. "I assume you're another one of Maxwell's Soldiers?"

"Hmph." She scoffed. "I'm Luna, what's it to you?" she snapped back.

James kept his cool as he tried to reason with her. "Me and my units are just passing by; we do not want to cause any trouble. If you would be so kind as to let us be on our way it would greatly be appreciated."

Luna smirked. "Heh. And here I thought you were going to be more dangerous, but all I see is a softie!"

He wasn't fazed by the remark, but he knew that getting past her wasn't going to be easy. "I only want to try to end this peace fully. If you don't want to cooperate, then I have no choice but to get through by force." He then raised his sword and pointed it at her.

Luna kept her composure. "Oooh! Scary! What are you going to do? You think you and your little friends can do anything? All I can see is a failure, a coward and a freak!" her insults were targeted at Vargas, Tora and Ardin respectively. They each reacted differently.

"That was uncalled for!" Vargas retorted.

"C-coward?" Tora whimpered.

"Oi! Who are you calling a freak?!" Ardin shouted.

She cocked her head towards Ardin. "Oh. Did I strike a nerve?" she sneered. More monsters arrived at the scene, crowding behind her. "Yeah. I said freak, you black-winged chicken."

"That's enough. If you refuse to cooperate then I'm afraid I'll have to-" James was immediately cut off by Ardin.

"James. I'll handle this one. She is really getting on my case."

"Are you sure about this?"

"Oh I'll be fine. She's light, I'm dark. We may do more damage to each other, but we all know who's better here." Ardin had a confident smirk on his face.

James became hesitant for a moment before nodding. "Alright. I'll leave this to you. We'll take care of the monsters." He then gestured to Vargas and Tora to follow him. They then charged at the monsters, leaving Ardin with Luna.

Ardin raised his sword as he then brought himself into a fighting stance. "That mouth will get you killed. How about I prove it to you?" he grinned.

Luna goes into a fighting stance of her own. "Hah! Bring it on, pretty boy!

They both grinned as they charged at one another; sparks flew as their weapons made contact. They repeat the process several times. Luna moved fast as she moves in a linear motion towards Ardin, but he quickly moves to the side, barely avoiding the attack while simultaneously leaving a small cut on her leg.

"Augh! Not bad, for a freak." Luna remarked.

"Says you!" Ardin smirked. "I've seen lancers with better thrusting techniques better than you!"

"Why you little…" they charged once again as they began exchanging insults to one another.

…

Meanwhile the group tries to fend off enemy reinforcements; they didn't have much of a problem fighting them as their numbers weren't as big as before.

"Let's take them out!" James shouted. "We need to clear the area for Ardin!"

"Right!" the units responded. Tora once again used her vines to trap some of the enemies while Vargas and James disposed of them. James quickly pulled out Requiem and fired on the Angels and other enemies that were beyond their reach.

"Me and my big mouth!" Vargas shouted as he uppercuts an oncoming Unicorn. He looked to James. "I really thought we were in the clear. Don't you have anything in that coat of yours that can help?"

James quickly searches his pockets and pulls out one of the many grenades he had. "You two! Get back!" And they did so. "Cover your ears." He whispered. James quickly bit the safety pin of the grenade and spits it off to the side. He quickly threw it at the monsters as he ran away from the blast radius. It bounced a couple of times until it rolled into the center of the crowd. After a few moments it emitted a bright flash accompanied with a loud "BANG". With the open area of the corridor, the sound echoed off into the distance weakening its effectiveness, but it was just enough to give the group an advantage. Some of the enemies that were close to the impact became blinded as a result to the flash while the rest were disoriented from the sound.

"Alright." James uttered the command. "Let's finish them off!"

…

The argument between Ardin and Luna still continued as they fought.

"I've seen better armor on squires than you! What are you? An exhibitionist?" she laughed as she charged at Ardin again.

Ardin leaped over her as he lands another cut, this time on her back. "Exhibitionist? Hah! Look who's talking! At least I AM wearing armor, unlike you!"

Luna quickly made a jab, managing to land a couple of hits on Ardins exposed chest while he was boasting. "You should have had that covered!"

He looked down to see two large stab wounds on his body. "Ow... I guess I shouldn't have been confident." He tried shrugged the pain off as it was nothing, but due to her elemental advantage, the wounds were more painful than they should be.

"You should look at your fighting style. Are you attacking or dancing?" Luna mocked as she performed a couple more jabs.

"It's called "finesse"! At least it's better than just charging head first into the enemy!" He responded while blocking her attacks despite being wounded.

"Just charging huh?" Luna smirked as she quickly swings her lance in a low sweep, tripping Ardin and knocking him down.

"Augh! Damn it! For a knight you don't play fair!"Ardin shouted.

"Since when has life been fair?" She sneered.

"Tch…."

"Alright. Time to die!" she jumped into the air and pointed her lance at Ardin. Her body is surrounded in a faint white glow and her lance shone intensely. She then began to dive as she performed her Brave burst. "Vulgar Jab!" As she collided with the floor, the ground began to shake violently as an explosion of light energy rocked the corridor. The rest of the party had finished off the remaining enemy when they spotted a light coming from that direction.

"Damn it. Ardin!" James quickly ran towards the location of the racket only to see a dense cloud of dust covering the area. The dust cloud partially disappeared revealing Luna, panting heavily with her lance buried in the ground; parts of it were covered in blood. Black feathers are scattered on the ground where Ardin used to be.

"Gods damn it!" yelled Vargas. Tora stood there with a look of horror on her face. James tightly gripped his blade as rage continued to build up, but he began to calm down as he got a closer look at the scene. There was a small puddle of blood, but no body.

"Argh… where did that bastard go?" Luna wondered before feeling a sharp pain in her abdomen. "ACK!" she coughed. A blade is seen sticking out of her body.

"Heh. And I thought I was confident." The rest of the dust cloud disappears as Ardin is seen right behind her.

Luna fell to her knees as she coughed blood. "H-how?"

Ardin smirked. "Simple. I can still move you know, it'll take more than just a couple of pokes to put me down."

"I guess I underestimated you." She coughed one more time before collapsing to the floor, succumbing to her injuries. Her body faded away shortly after.

Ardin looked to the group. "You guys look like you saw a ghost. What's up?"

Vargas laughed. "Ardin you idiot I am impressed!" Both James and Tora sighed with relief.

"Can you not do that again?" James stated as he gripped his chest. His face looking rather shocked, which seemed uncharacteristically of him. "You nearly gave some of us a heart attack."

"Seriously? I made you guys that worried?" Ardin asked before getting a slap from Tora. "OW!"

"N-Never mind that." James brushed the topic aside as he picks up a gem. He looks to see an open gate in the distance, the light from the outside pouring in adding more brightness to the area. "We're almost at the exit. Tilith is most likely waiting for us again." He threw Ardin a cure before speed walking towards the exit, with Vargas and Tora trailing close behind him.

"Hey!" Ardin shouted. "Did I seriously nearly give him a heart attack?!" Ardin laughed as he catches up with the group, unbeknownst to them they were being watched from the shadows.

…

St. Lamia Palace, Same Time…

"Hmm…" A silver-haired woman looked through a sphere, showing them leaving the ruins. She paid close attention to the dark-clad man whom she recognizes as the summoner. He along with his units managed to defeat many of her followers, including the heroes she has placed throughout Mistral. He was not as incompetent as she thought. Then again, they were weak, it was certain that they were going to fail. This was to be expected knowing what kind of potential they are capable of, but they are still human, fragile and weak compared to her. She would have thought the same for this individual if it wasn't for the incident that occurred at Egor Snowfield. She had kept a watchful eye on him ever since, seeing just what kind of power he possessed.

"Just what are you…?" She wondered as she stared into the orb. _Lucius has sent many a summoner to stop us, but this one is different. I feel something within him. It's a shame that he has yet to realize what he is, but then… I do not know as well._ She then looked to the units. The Black Winged Demigod Ardin, Burning Vargas of the Six Heroes and… Her eyes widened in curiosity as she looked at the final unit, she recognized her almost immediately. Thorned Tora, the former Disciple of Cardes the Malevolent, one of the other fallen gods. _How did this fool managed to summon her? Interesting…_ Her train of thought was soon derailed by the sound of something crashing in front of her.

A door burst open as someone entered the throne room. The dragon knight Zephu fell on his knees as he pants in exhaustion. "M-Mistress Maxwell!" He cried.

The sphere shut itself off as Maxwell sighed with discontent. She relaxed on the throne, looking at the knight with a stern look. "Do you have anything to report?"

Zephu looked up with a frightened look in his eyes. "Mistress Maxwell… the summoner… he managed to get through! I couldn't stop him. He also told me that-"

Maxwell interrupted him, looking all the more displeased. "I am already aware of that."

Zephu put his head down. "H-he was too strong! We had no chance! Please! Give me another chance!"

Maxwell's golden eyes glared at the Zephu, who was trembling. "I have no use for pawns like you. I shall summon another copy to take your place" She stood up and raised her right hand, pointing directly at Zephu.

Zephu, now terrified, could only look in horror as he felt his body tighten up. "N-No! Please! Have Mercy!"

She didn't want to hear any more of it. Hearing his plea in such a way sickened her. Maxwell then balled her hand into a tight fist as the aura around her began to grow stronger. Zephu wailed as his body began to light up and slowly fade from existence. With a snap of her fingers, a white magical circle appeared before her. A pillar of light flashed for a brief moment, and a unit took its place; it was another copy of Zephu. His soulless eyes looked towards the goddess and kneeled before her.

"What are your orders, Mistress Maxwell?" the new Zephu asked in an emotionless tone.

"Monsters have stationed themselves at Mt. Craylia. You shall join them and stop the summoner should he arrive there. Do not hesitate to kill him or anyone else who crosses your path. Is that clear?"

"Understood" said the new Zephu. He then turned around and left the throne room, shutting the doors behind him.

 _What an interesting group of misfits…_ She thought to herself again. _At this rate, he may reach the tower by the next day. I may as well continue to observe him and see how my next puppet handles him…_

* * *

 **Area Clear! Gem Count: 3**

 ** _Announcement!_**

 **For my followers,**

 **I'm planning to do an overhaul (well i think the words a bit too big of a stretch) on two of my chapters in this story, I feel as though they need to be changed. what do you guys think? PM me for more inquiry.**

 **Also shout out to Garth Kaiser! Thanks for the encouragement (and the chapter title )**


	16. Chapter 13: Moonlit Duel

**Finally. Another chapter up. As always let me know how the chapter is in the reviews and I hope you all enjoy it.**

* * *

As they made their first step out the ruins, they were greeted by the black starry sky above, the forest ahead of them bathed by the moonlight. Night had already fallen, making it harder for the group to see their surroundings. Did they spend more time in the ruins than they thought? Or was it the lands drastic change in scenery again? Regardless they pressed forward, the tower of Mistral was close, just one more area to cross. As they walked, they noticed that the area was shrouded in a dense fog, making the scenery look more ominous.

"Stay close everyone," instructed James. "We can't get lost here.

"You think I don't know that?" Ardin scoffed. "This fog is nothing."

"I think Tora begs to differ." Vargas pointed at her, who looked visibly nervous.

James sighed. "Tilith better be around here…"

The group advanced through the forest with no problem whatsoever. No monsters had appeared yet, but the units kept their guards up in the case of an attack. After a few minutes of walking, they found themselves at the end of the trail, only to be greeted by a yet another new sight. They stood in front of a gate, which led to a large decrepit building. The exterior did not look as bad compared to the ruins they had passed previously, but like it, its size dwarfed the group. At the very top, they could faintly see a wooden cross precariously perched on top of the spire, giving the impression that this had to be a religious institute of some sort. It was surrounded by cross-shaped graves, haphazardly placed wooden coffins and barren trees. The fence that bordered around the mansion looked crooked and rusted, and the gate leading to it was already broken open. With its size and the setting around them, it made the situation all the more unsettling.

The group entered the area, slowly walking towards the building with caution.

"What took you so long!?" a familiar voice called out from behind.

The group quickly turned around, weapons drawn.

"He-Hey!" The voice came from Tilith, who stumbled back.

"Sorry." Vargas apologized as he helped Tilith up. "You startled us."

Ardin scoffed as he returned his katana back into its sheath while Tora sighed with relief.

James decided to examine the building's exterior. "Do you know anything about this particular building?" he inquired.

Tilith looked rather nervous as she stared at the building. "This building is known as the monsters nest…"

James looked at the building before replying. "I'm going to assume that it got its name from the fact monsters took control of this place and made it their home?"

"You got that right." She chuckled nervously.

James sighed as he asked her. "Are you feeling scared right now?"

"N-No! I'm not scared!" Tilith frantically shook her head.

Ardin chuckled. Still feeling a little bit mischevious from his battle in the ruins, he decided to have a little fun in scaring the goddess. "Oh? So you're not scared if some random monster randomly crept up on you from behind and goes- ROAR!" he did a comical roar as he pretended to leap toward Tilith.

"Eek!" Tilith squealed as she fell down.

Ardin tries to contain his laughter but couldn't help himself as it was very amusing, that is until Tora kicked him in the shin. "OW!"

"Quit it!" She shouted, doing her best to try to look calm despite being scared herself.

"Alright, I'll stop! I just wanted to lighten up the mood a little!"

Vargas shook his head. "That would be appreciated, but there is a difference in being a mood maker and being annoying you know."

"Tch. Can no one take a joke…?" Ardin grumbled as he moved off to the side.

James sighed as he helped Tilith up. "Is there anything else that we should know about? Like a specific enemy to watch out for?"

"Now that you mentioned it…" Tilith responded as she patted off some of the dirt off her clothes. "I did see a mysterious swordsman walking around here while I was waiting."

"Mysterious swordsman? I assume he's another one of Maxwell's pawns?"

"I don't know. He wore really strange clothes. And I think the weapon he's using is similar to his." She pointed at Ardin.

This information struck Vargas as familiar." Did the man wear a black robe of some kind, some sandals, and a straw hat that nearly covers his face?" he asked.

"Now that you think about it, he did. How did you know?"

Vargas didn't hesitate to answer. "It's because I fought him before."

The units, James, and Tilith took an interest in this. "You did?" They all asked in unison.

Vargas nodded. "The name of the swordsman is Mifune. I only heard rumors about him; they claim that he was a warrior from another world. His clothes were unfamiliar so I believed that, and his sword had a more superior quality than that of the weapons back at Agni. It was very efficient and could cut down any target with a single swing, whether it was a monster, human or God."

Listening to his description, both Tora and Tilith felt pretty intimidated, while Ardin looked more intrigued. James stood there as he paid attention. "Anything else?" he asked.

Vargas pondered for a moment, trying to remember something. "I do remember how he fought. If you weren't careful, he would cut you down and you wouldn't even see or feel it. It was a miracle I even won that duel, let alone survived it."

Tilith looked to be at her breaking point. "O-Okay! I've heard enough! Can we get going now? I can't take this place any longer…"

James looked to the west, noticing a large structure in the distance. He knew what it was. "The tower lies ahead. If you two are too scared to go, then exploring this building will only be more trouble than it's worth. We can do that later, but for now, let's keep going." He then turned to Tilith. "We'll provide protection again; I know how uncomfortable you must be feeling right now."

Tilith blushed a little at his generosity. "I knew I can count on you." She smiled.

The team walked away from the dubious building and began to cross the small graveyard. The air around them felt cold as the mist continued to cover the area. Up ahead, James spotted a lone red chest resting in front of one of the graves. The fact that it happened to be there struck him as suspicious. He turned to the units. "Anyone want to take a look? If not, I will." The units said nothing in response, signaling him to examine it.

James eyed the chest curiously as he walked closer to it. The chest began to shake as he was only a few steps away. He took a step back as it continued to rattle. The chest underwent a change as it began to glow in a red light. When it ended, the chest sported new fangs on its hinges, a singular eye attached at the very top and a long tongue sticking out from its mouth. It slobbered and spouted incoherent sentences as it lunged toward the summoner.

James quickly kept the monsters mouth open using his hands, preventing it from trying to swallow him whole. But with its newfound set of teeth, doing this was very painful. _Mimics. I should have known…_ "I need some assistance!" He yelled to his units.

At that moment, enemies began to appear from all sides, apparently attracted by the mimic's noises. Dark purple slimes began to bounce towards the group from one corner while skeletons began to jump out of some of the coffins on the other. In the distance, mages donned in dark purple robes began to fire projectiles made from dark magic. The units and Tilith began to scramble, dodging some of the attacks. Tora stood near Tilith as she fended off some of the slimes while the two swordsmen took care of the others.

The mimic continued to drool on James' hands as it tries to close its jaw. His hands have begun to bleed from the sharp teeth, and, with the mimic's increased efforts to swallow James whole, it was getting progressively harder to keep its mouth open. With the units clearly preoccupied with the monsters, he had to get out of this himself. James planted his right foot on the mimic's lower jaw to make it easier to keep its mouth open. With his right hand free, he pulled out his revolver and unloaded a full clip into the mimic's mouth. With a painful screech, the mimic backed away. Now free from its grip, James brought out his sword and pounced on the downed monster, impaling it through its eye. It disappeared after that, leaving a yellow soul that he would absorb. James then applied bandages his hands and reloaded his revolver before regrouping with his units.

Ardin began to cut down the distant mages as well as a few skeletons while Vargas fought a couple of slimes. They had no problem in fighting them, but then they noticed that there were fewer monsters than they thought. It seemed easy, too easy. Just as Ardin was about to get attacked from behind by one of the skeletons, it was suddenly cut down, crumbling into nothing more than a pile of bones before disappearing. Other enemies were quickly disposed of by a seemingly unseen force. Vargas' eyes widened as he knew what was going on. He began to shout. "Everyone, stay sharp!"

With that, everyone suddenly became more focused, frantically looking around for the target. Ardin heard something moved behind him and quickly raised his sword to block. At that moment he could feel another blade clash with his. He could see nothing in front of him, but he knew that someone was attempting to pick them off one by one. Tora heard something move to her side and created a wall of vines to stop it, but it was cut down as she could see a flash for a split second. Remembering Vargas' description, she quickly braced herself for the oncoming strike, but the enemy was quickly repelled by a single shot from James' revolver.

The enemy rushed towards James next, and he brought his greatsword up and prepared to block. Just as the blade was about a few inches away, Vargas intervened, crossing swords with the foe. It was then the enemy became visible. "It's been a while, Mifune." The man standing before Vargas matched his earlier description, a man donned in a black robe and wooden sandals along with a widely-brimmed straw hat worn over his head. He remained silent as he pushed himself away from Vargas. "It's been ages since we have crossed swords." Mifune replied.

Vargas took a step forward. "So you decided to side with the Fallen Gods. But why? You fought against them back in the war."

"My blade continues to thirst for blood. It can never be sated, and thus I cannot sleep. Now I have been brought back by the gods to stop you from advancing further. Perhaps I may finally be able to satisfy its hunger."

Vargas shook his head as he raised his blade, going into a fighting stance. "Then I suppose we can have our rematch here. You and me, one on one."

Mifune placed his right hand on the handle of the katana as he too went into a fighting stance. "I have always wanted to duel with you again. You had provided me more of a challenge compared to other warriors I've faced. But enough talk. I am sure you would want to settle this here and now."

"I couldn't agree more." Vargas said just before he started to charge at the Samurai. Mifune became nothing more than a blur as he used the same tactic as before on Vargas, but was unsuccessful as Vargas had the reflexes to counter each strike.

Tilith watched the duel with awe as the duo continued to clash. The units along with James stood nearby as they also began to spectate, wishing not to interfere. Sparks flew from different corners as they darted around the graveyard. Despite having a heavier weapon, Vargas was able to parry Mifune's attacks, however, his speed makes it near impossible to perform a counter attack. Even if he had found a break in his attack pattern, he would only have less than a second to take advantage of the opening.

"What's wrong Vargas? I thought you were stronger than that." Mifune taunted as he unleashed a flurry of swings.

Admittedly, he did feel much slower than the state he was in when he first fought Mifune, It could have been the downgrade of becoming a unit, or the fatigue from fthe previous fights getting to him. But didn't matter to him, he had to grow stronger, that one day he would surpass his father, and that knight. Vargas took a step forward as he began a combo of his own, pushing back Mifune. He swung his sword with great speed, his combo unrelenting; all the while Mifune continued to counter with little effort. He knew that at this rate, Vargas would soon deplete his own stamina before him, so all he can do is wait until he can find an opening. Right as he parried the next swing, Mifune found the opening he needed. Taking advantage of this, he quickly performs a quick, one-handed horizontal slash, leaving a large cut on Vargas' abdomen.

Vargas coughed as he staggered back. He placed his hand on his stomach to assess the damage; most of his hand was drenched in his own blood. He began to stand up, using his sword to help support him.

Mifune looked at his bloodstained sword, and then to Vargas. "You have gotten dull. That warrior that I fought before, he is not here. Maybe I had the wrong person."

Gritting his teeth, Vargas pulled himself up. "I'm not finished yet…"

…

"We can't just stand here!" Tora protested.

"I have to agree with her. I hate to admit it, but he's going to need our help right now." Ardin responded.

James looked at his downed unit, gripping his sword. "I know. Ardin, you're with me. Distract Mifune while I tend to Vargas' wounds."

"What do you want me to do?" Tora asked.

"Stay here with Tilith. But if you can, try to help us out at a distance." James looked straight ahead. "Ardin, let's go."

"Yeah."

…

Vargas rose to his feet as he charged at Mifune once again, their gazes met as they crossed swords. "I'm not going to lose!" He shouted.

Mifune expression remained as it is as he gained the upper hand. "That determination is still there, but you haven't improved." He pushed the swordsman back, sending him flying towards a nearby grave. Vargas coughed again as he landed.

Vargas got up quickly and swung his sword again, but with the blood loss and low stamina, he wasn't able to land a hit on him as his sword was quickly knocked out of his hands. He was then kicked to the ground and was at the mercy of Mifune, who pointed his sword near his neck. "I will end your suffering quickly. It will take only a second." Vargas closed his eyes at his imminent demise, bracing himself for the killing blow. His saving grace came from the sound of gunfire coming from a distance. Mifune quickly deflected the bullets before charging at James.

"Now!" He shouted.

"No need to tell me twice!" Ardin then flew from the side in an attempt to catch Mifune by surprise but was quickly blocked.

"This sword… I take it you two came from another world?" Mifune inquired.

"No. but someone else did." Ardin responded as he then proceeded to counterattack.

In the meantime, James knelt beside Vargas as he handed him a couple of cures.

Vargas looked down as his wounds began to disappear. "I was too careless. I shouldn't have tried to fight him myself. Maybe I have gotten weaker…" Seeing the state Vargas was in, James quickly slapped his face. "Ow! What was that for?"

"That's enough. It couldn't be helped." James said in a stern tone. "You haven't lost your edge. After all, we haven't had a rest since the forest. Of course, we would feel somewhat tired by now."

"Yes but still-" he was cut off.

"There's no need to keep dwelling on it, what we should focus on doing is eliminating Mifune. We won't be able to progress any further while he's still alive. Remember, this one is also a copy made by the gods, don't let him get to you."

Vargas nodded, feeling a little reassured. "You're right…"

James stood up and offered to help Vargas up. This time you won't be fighting alone. Now, let's take him down."

Vargas grinned as he got up. "Let's go. Lead the way!"

His summoner nodded as they both uttered a battle cry, charging towards Mifune, simultaneously attacking him while he was dealing with Ardin.

The three swordsmen attacked from multiple directions, hoping that they would find a weak spot. Mifune moved very quickly as he parried all of their attacks, showing next to no signs of fatigue.

Tora frantically looked around to figure out what she should do. There was no way she could just stay here while the rest were fighting. She then looked towards a tree nearby where everyone was fighting. _Maybe I can help them with this. I hope this works…_ She closed her eyes and began to channel her energy towards to the tree.

"He's not letting up!" Ardin shouted

"Keep attacking!" James shouted. "He'll break soon!"

As they were fighting, the tree nearby suddenly began to move as a couple of branches scooped Mifune up and launched him to the tree. Vines then wrapped themselves around the tree, trapping Mifune. "What is this?!" He shouted as he struggled to free himself. All it was doing is inflicting more pain on himself as the thorns began to pierce his skin, making him bleed out.

 _She's full of surprises today..._ James thought. He gave a thumbs up as he backed away, signaling for them to use their brave bursts.

"Flare Ride Plus!"

"Plum Scent!"

The combined efforts of the two ensured that Mifune was defeated, the tree in exploded into little splinters as it was destroyed in the process. After it was all said and done, Vargas looked to what was left of the tree as he walked towards it. In his place was a lone gem that rested in front of him. He knelt down to pick it up. "I hope that one day you will be free from your curse." He whispered. "Rest in peace, Mifune." He then turned back to the group, where Tilith began to congratulate them.

"Impressive as always, The tower lies just ahead. Defeat it's guardian and we'll be able to get to Morgan from there."

"Alright." James responded. "But do you mind if we head back for a while and get some rest? We traveled a long way and it won't do us any good if we're tired and out of supplies before fighting the guardian."

Tilith nodded. "I don't see why not. I'll prepare the way back. Once you're all set, I'll be waiting at the towers entrance." Tilith began to generate a small door in front of her, similar to the one from the outskirts of the village. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get out of here. This place gives me the creeps." She began to run off, waving the group goodbye before vanishing into the forest.

James began to speak. "Alright everyone. I think we managed to get pretty far for today. Let's all try to relax. Whatever is in that tower, it's going to require for all of us to be in good condition to face it." The units nodded in response. One by one, they began to enter the miniature gate. James was about to step inside before being pulled back by Vargas. "Is there something wrong?" He asked.

Vargas handed over the gem he obtained from before. "I would like to thank you for your assistance from before."

"It's no problem. Regardless of who they are, I can't leave a friend behind."

Vargas thought for a minute as he had a thought. "Something's been bothering me, though."

"What do you mean?"

Vargas opened his mouth to speak, but gave up. "Umm… Nothing, I forgot what I was going to say."

"Alright. If you do remember, don't hesitate to tell me about it." James then entered the Gate, disappearing inside.

 _I should've asked him about the incident in Egor. I guess I'll ask him later._ Vargas was the last to go in as the small gate closed shut.

* * *

 _ **Area Clear! Gem count: 4**_

 **Finally, summer's here and I got more time to myself. Hopefully, updates will be quicker and I don't end up getting too busy. Still feeling a little stressed as University is coming and my brains a little scrambled with the preparations. If my chapters are not as good, I apologize.**

 **Also thanks zanpaku for the unit suggestion. If anyone has a unit that I should try using in the story, please let me know. I may also do a poll if you people want me too. I like to hear some input, it makes planning all the more fun. I may not use the same party for the WHOLE story, In the future I want to see if I can add more of a variety, switch units up every now and then to fit the situation, kind of like how us players tend to change our squads every now and then (granted if I can go far enough in the story).**

 **Update: Moved Intermission 2 two chapters back. I feel like I wanted to make the appearance of those chapters a little consistent. (feel free to ignore this little note here, just letting people know.**


	17. Intermission 3: Searching, Part 2

_Breeze Beach, Morgan_

She found herself walking along a beach, heading to the direction Karl told her previously. The cool salty breeze that blew by felt comfortable and the sound of the water rolling up on the shore felt very relaxing. That, coupled with the warm sun and the clear blue sky, it feels like the right place to go for a vacation. Still, there was no time to relax, she had to find her friend, and fast. On top of that, she was in an unfamiliar world which may be inhabited by wildlife that she has yet to encounter. The fact she was able to find people here felt somewhat reassuring, but the attire they wore made her feel slightly out of place. She began to reach up to her earpiece and attempted to call Janus. "Hello? Professor. Do you read me?" She was met with static on the other end. _Figures. Of course there would be interference here. I doubt I can find any reception around here too._ So far, she hadn't encountered anything hostile, that is until she spotted something moving ahead. She spotted a being that looked like that of a blue-haired female. Clutching the grip of her sheathed longsword, she began to approach the being. "Excuse me?" She called out. The being looked towards her with an unsettling grin. Valerie called out again. "Can you help me figure out how I can get to the Magutagal Wetlands?"

"Certainly." The being hissed. "But first… I want to play…" She began to move towards her in an odd pattern. It was only when she got closer that Valerie got a better look at the creature. Her upper body was that of a human female, but her legs were serpentine. The very tip of her tail looks as if it could impale and her nails were razor sharp. She took a step back and unsheathed her sword. "Well… so much for taking a pacifist route…" she sighed. The creature quickly lunged at her, hands outstretched to scratch the living daylights out of her. Valerie quickly moved to the side while simultaneously leaves a small cut on the enemy before regaining her footing. The creature quickly attempts to attack her again, only to be cut down by Valerie in a flash. It disappeared shortly after, leaving small traces of blood but no corpse. She was rather surprised of what she encountered. _That was a Ramia… but those were just legends, right?_ She heard the sound of sand being moved from all around as more enemies began to appear. All of them were Ramia, much like the one she just met. They all hissed as they slowly advanced towards Valerie. "Tch. I knew this wouldn't be easy."

At that moment, they took advantage of their numbers and lunged towards her at the same time. With quick reflexes, Valerie dove under one of the Ramia, barely missing her nails by an inch. She quickly stood up and swung her sword a few times, releasing a small wave of magic to damage a couple of them. Angered now, their movements became more erratic as they tried to attack again. Valerie takes a step and quickly slays the two monsters down with a single swing. She then proceeded to cut the rest down one by one, performing elegant swings and simultaneously dodging their attacks in a weaving motion. In no time at all, they were all finished. "Phew. That wasn't hard." She sighed with relief. She was about turn away and continue when she then heard what sounded like a loud splash coming from the water nearby. She quickly turned to see a tentacle rising out of the water. The tip was pointed towards Valerie as it began to charge towards her. She rolls to the side, but it still managed to wrap itself around her leg. It began to pull her towards the water. She struggled to get herself free, but it managed to have a tight grip around her ankle. With no other options, she quickly swung her sword, severing the tentacle. At that moment she could hear a loud screech coming from the water as something began to rise out of it. The new monster resembled that of a giant squid, but it was unlike she had ever seen. "What… IS this place!?" She cried out.

The monster began to speak with a booming voice. "Those who defile nature must be punished…" it echoed.

Valerie turns to the monster. "I'm not here to cause any trouble. I'm just looking for my friend. If you would be so kind as to-" She was quickly cut off.

"Foolish human! You have slain the denizens of this environment. For that, you shall be punished!" It began to raise a few of its tentacles in an effort to swat Valerie, to which she quickly dodged.

"It won't listen to reason. In that case, I may as well hold my ground!" She let loose a couple of magical waves at the enemy, severing more of its tentacles. Each of them faded as they hit the water's surface. It only served to make the monster angrier as it crawled onto the shore. _I better keep my distance; I can't let this thing drag me to the water again. Maybe if I could get it away as far from the ocean, I may be able to finish it off._ She quickly turned around and began to run with the monster chasing after her. It began to spew water that it managed to suck up previously. It let off some steam as it landed onto the sand, evaporating upon contact. Luckily she was able to dodge most of the shots by running in a zigzag fashion, making it more difficult for it to have an accurate shot. However, some bits of water managed to touch her skin. She winced as it felt scalding hot, but she kept running in hopes that she had given it enough distance from the water.

As she was about to turn around to attack, she noticed more monsters coming from up ahead. In addition to Ramias, there were also a couple of what appeared to be overweight pirates and a few priestesses just behind them. The Ramias and pirates began to charge at her while the priestesses fired water-based projectiles. Valerie rolled to the side and began to fight the other enemies. With the new enemies as well as the other beast from before, it was made clear that she was outnumbered. _I can't fight them up close; I'll try to keep my distance._ Using her magic, she began to materialize a staff and held it on her left hand. She jumped back and began to fire her own barrage of magical attacks at the enemy, paying extra attention to the priestesses while keeping the others at bay. Once they were taken care of, she turned her attention to the pirates and the lamia. The other monsters were quickly defeated, with the beast left standing. It looked exhausted from the chase and with only one tentacle remaining, it looked like it would have a hard time moving back into the water. _Now's my chance!_

She was about to take a step forward when she was interrupted by a voice. "Frigid Combo." A male voice called out. The monster was then encased in ice, frozen in place, and a man appeared in front of it and swung a couple of swings, the ice shattered, and the monster was broken apart. The pieces then disappeared along with the remains of the now slain beast. The man wiped his blade clean of blood before turning to Valerie. The man wore a blue jacket and black pants with blue stripes along with boots with a similar color scheme. He had long black hair that appeared to reach to his knees. His sword had a curved, single-edged blade that looked to be made of ice. He did not look anything like a knight, but the aura giving off from him seems to say otherwise. He glared at her with his blue eyes as he asked in a harsh tone. "What are you doing here?"

His gaze made her flinch. "I-I'm looking for a friend of mine. H-Have you seen him?"

"It's a waste of time. If he was here, he would have been by some monster a long time ago." He scoffed.

 _He's rude. All I ask is something simple, he didn't need to be this harsh._ Valerie calmed herself before speaking up. "Though, I could also ask you the same thing. What is a man like you doing out here?"

"I'm also here looking for someone." He replied.

"Who?"

"That doesn't concern you."

Valerie turned around, not giving him the satisfaction of seeing that she was angry. "Well, let me at least thank you for slaying that beast for me."

"That beast was merely small fry. I could have killed it easily even if it was in the water."

His attitude was making her fume. She didn't want to waste her time talking with him, and she could tell he was feeling the same way with her. "I hope you find who you were looking for." She began to walk away, continuing her way to the Wetlands with the sun slowly beginning to set.

The man said nothing as he walked in the opposite direction. _There shouldn't be any other humans here._ He thought. _She looks like a summoner, but that aura she gives off says something differently. Is she connected to that man I've been hearing about? I'll wait until he does appear, maybe he may just be the opponent I've been looking for. As for woman… I'll let the monsters keep an eye on her._

…

 _Magutagal Wetlands, a few minutes later_

 _It's a good thing I'm wearing boots…_ Valerie thought as she made her first step into the Magutagal Wetlands. She had some difficulty as trudged through the muddy water, taking big steps and making sure her skirt didn't pick up any dirt. Much to her relief, she found a wooden platform and proceeded to climb on it. "Well, isn't this a fine mess. Where to go next?" she asked herself. In the distance, she could barely spot what appeared to be a building in the distance, but most of it remained obscure due to the trees. She walked towards that direction, staying low as the rain began to pour and the thunderclap behind her. _This is ridiculous. How does the weather change so fast? It was sunny before and now this. At least I won't have to worry about washing the dirt off…_ She kept walking on the wooden bridge when she came across a large hole; smoke was still rising from the charred wood. Whatever had left this mark had done it almost recently. It would make sense that the lightning could have been responsible, but it would need to be stronger to take out a large section of the bridge. She also spotted more burn marks on the bridge, but none of them were as destructive as the one in front of her. _Could there have been a struggle? It seems as if someone else passed by here…_

After jumping over the large gap, she continued to walk along the bridge until she reached the end of it, finally reaching to solid ground. She began to walk across the field, taking caution of the lighting above her. Her eyes widened with what she found next. Up ahead she could see some bloodstains on the ground, more burn marks, and large gaping holes in the ground that seemed to form one large circle, more evidence of a battle that may have taken place. Something struck her as odd, however. Throughout her little exploration of the wetlands, there were no signs of monsters in the area. Maybe whatever had happened here could be the reason of the lack of enemies. She could feel remnants of magical power in the area. Some felt unfamiliar to her, but she could faintly sense one that was familiar to her. _He must have passed by here. I just know it!_ She began to walk towards a small forest leading towards the building. Oddly enough, as quickly as it came, the rain began to subside. The clouds also began to clear up, revealing a now darkened sky. Night had quickly fallen, much to her surprise.

"Just how long was I out for?" Valerie asked herself. She checked her phone, which was luckily not drenched in muddy swamp water. The stopwatch she had on showed that she had been out for a little over three hours. _I was sure I left early in the morning! Then again, I don't exactly know how this world works._ She clutched her head as she was still feeling a little dizzy from her entrance through that gate. That, along with the fight she had back at the beach as well as her exploration, had made her a little bit tired. _Perhaps some sleep will do me some good..._ She began to gather some materials needed to start a fire. After arranging the stones around the newly made pile of twigs and dead grass, she began to strike the two spare stones together in hopes to create a spark. _He makes this look a lot easier…_ After a few moments of attempting to get the fire started, a small ember began to glow from the pile. Within a matter of seconds, it ignites into a small flame. _It may not be much, but this should help me get through most of the night._ She lay down in a small clearing within the small forest that led to the building, huddling close to the fire for warmth. _Just where are you? I hope you are safe…_ She stared into the fire for a few moments before slowly shutting her eyes, drifting off into sleep.

* * *

 **Seems odd for me to upload a side chapter just 1 chapter after the last one, but I felt like moving the previous one a couple of chapters back and I thought of a pattern. I would probably upload an Intermission chapter every fourth chapter in the story, or when there is a break in the action (i.e the main group is sleeping or just after a major battle). Seems like one way to give my little story a pattern, don't you think?**

 **Also looking into Roctiv's recent review (Thanks for your continuous support by the way!) I have begun planning for future intermission chapters to not only cover some of my other ocs, but possibly some of the storyline characters, such as the other summoners from the game or even put perspective on the Fallen Gods side or even couple multiple perspectives in a single chapter. (I just hope I don't butcher their character) What do you guys think? As always, let me know by review or PM. Hopefully I can get a new chapter up by either the end of this week or sometime next week, that is if university preparations don't get to me first...**

 **Bonus: Whos the man that Valerie talked to? (I didn't give his name, but my description may have made it too easy.)**


	18. Chapter 14: Dreams

…

 _Where am I this time?_ James found himself in yet another void. Unlike the one he was in during his meeting with Lucius, this one was white, and he was standing on solid ground, or at least, it felt like solid ground. He began to walk around aimlessly, the echoing of the footsteps being the only sound that filled the area. No doubt this was another dream, unlike the nightmare from the previous night. He then came across what looked to be three black rectangular shapes up ahead. He walked towards them to get a closer look.

He tapped the one on the left, and it quickly flickered on. The rectangle became like that of a floating television screen as a series of scenes began to play from it. The first event showed a young red-haired boy looking up to a man who bore a similar appearance, most likely his father. It then cut to the next scene. It showed the same boy, much older now fighting a few knights in combat, single-handedly defeated them with little effort. No doubt that this played back bits of Vargas' memories, there was no sound that came from the screen, only muffled voices. It cut again to another scene, this time, it showed a bruised Vargas on the ground,w his sword beyond his reach. Standing in front of him was a woman with waist length black hair wearing a revealing attire, in her hand was a short sword enveloped in a pale purple glow. She glared down at the defeated Vargas, sword pointed straight at him. The screen shut itself off afterward. _Surely this must have been the knight Vargas was talking about…_ James thought to himself.

James faced the center screen and tapped it next. The first scene that played showed in a first person expression. Two people were seen, their faces were hidden by the shadow cast over their eyes. Two small hands reached out in vain as the two people began to leave, the only sound that came from this screen was a baby's cry. The scene became more blurry, most likely due to tears. After a while an old man picked up the child, once again the voices were muffled. This situation matched Ardin's backstory, so this was his memory this time. It cut to another scene with the two training in swordplay, still in first person perspective. It the fast forwarded to the old man laying on his bed, Ardin, now much older, held his hand as the two appeared to be exchanging a few words. The man slowly closed his eyes and his hand went limp as strength faded from him, from the looks of things the man died peacefully. The scene cut once more as Ardin stands in front of a recently prepared grave, its details are blurry. He looked to his sword and began walking away. He then looked back to the grave one last time as the screen faded to black.

James then looked to the last screen. If the other two showed Vargas and Ardins memories, then the last one would most likely show Toras. He tapped the screen, and it turned on. He was then greeted with the sight of a third person view of Tora being verbally abused by a few humanoid beings. These beings had the same black scleras as Tora, they were probably other disciples or gods. It progressed to the beings shoving Tora, their laughing was audible. They continued to taunt her, words like "coward", "disgrace", and "fool" could be heard from the screen. Tora began to run away, with the beings still hurling insults. She was running with no particular destination in mind, crying all the while. She eventually bumps into another person as she is knocked down. The view shifted to the first person as she looked up to the stranger, but the screen shows heavy static, blocking the person's appearance to the point where it barely shows any colors. This memory was short however as the screen immediately shut itself off afterward.

 _What was that about?_ James wondered. _Could this have been the one that manipulated her? If so, who were they?_ There were many curious thoughts he had swirling in his head, but his train of thought derailed as the scenery around him suddenly began to blur, the screens that were in front of him simultaneously disappeared. The white nothingness began to grow brighter and brighter until everything around him became nothing but white.

…

Birds chirped outside as James began to wake up. "That was one weird dream…" He groaned as he slowly got out of bed. He looked around in the small house to look for his units, but they weren't there. He opened the door and walked out, there he spotted his units outside. Vargas and Ardin were sparring in a clearing again while Tora sat down by a tree reading a book.

Hearing the creak of the door opening, Tora looked up and saw her summoner. "Oh. Good morning."

"Morning…" James yawned. "When did you all wake up?"

"Those two got up before I did, and I couldn't sleep with their racket." She yawned. "So… when do we go?"

"I need to do some preparations," James replied. This won't take long, I'll let you guys know when I'm finished."

"Okay." Tora nodded before resuming her reading.

James then walked over to the familiar building with the red roof attached to a small silo that was next to the farm. He faced to the machine labeled "Farm" and placed his hand and pressed a blue button. In an instant he felt something forcefully shoved out of his body as the blue energy flowed into the chamber, slowly filling it up until it was completely filled. Once it did, the chamber emitted a blue glow as the karma inside began to disappear, he farm outside bathed in the same light. James looked at the monitors for any changes, the one labeled "Farm" now said that it was "Level 2" He also noticed that the farm also had quickly grown small plants with nuts of various colors attached to them. _Hmm, I wonder what would happen if I continued this process?_ He wondered. _Maybe new ingredients can grow here_. _And if I do the same with the synthesis and Sphere house, I may find better items to craft._ He repeated the same process with the other chambers. As he had explored almost all of Mistral, he had accumulated more karma to invest, and he didn't stop until all the chambers were at "Level 3". After transferring the Karma, he took a second to catch his breath. _The way this place works is strange… It may take some time to get used to these tasks…_ He went out and began to gather some items in each part of the town, starting from the small forest in the back, then to the farm, the lake and the mountain last. He then proceeded to the synthesis house to synthesize some items, The spheres will have to wait for now.

As he was in the middle of synthesizing, he felt a sharp pain come from his chest. "Gah!" James winced as he suffered from a headache. He clutched his chest and fell to his knees as a sharp pain came over his heart, his vision rapidly growing blurry and his heart beating much faster. His muscles tightened up as well, much like what happened back in Egor. _N-Not again!_ He thought. All this was momentary however as the symptoms, as quickly as they came, subsided in a near instant. He began to sweat heavily as he tried to stand up, only to fall down again as knocks a couple of glass containers off their shelves in the process.

"Huh?" Tora faced to the synthesis house as she heard the clatter. She got up and ran towards the house, Ardin and Vargas also heard this and stopped their training to follow her. They rushed in to see quite a mess, shards of glass from the shattered containers and different colored liquids littered the ground. James struggled to get up, slipping every now and then due to the slippery ground.

"Are you alright?" Vargas asked as he helped his summoner up.

"I'm Fine…"James responded.

"You don't look fine…" Tora said, noting that James was bleeding on the left side of his face.

He looked at the ground, seeing a few splotches of blood on the floor. "I felt a little dizzy. I might still be a bit tired still." He said, rubbing his head.

Ardin spoke up. "I doubt we're going anywhere if you're not fit to fight. We are going to fight the guardian of this place after all."

James shook his head as he pulls out a roll of bandages. "I said I'm fine. Nothing like a roll of bandages and something to get me awake can't solve." The three units weren't convinced. "Just relax a little while I try to clean up this mess." He instructed as he picks up a mop and begins gathering the glass shards.

"Do you need any help?" Tora asked.

James shook his head again. "It's a small mess. It's nothing."

After a few more minutes of awkward silence, the units proceeded to leave the synthesis house, leaving James to tidy up the place. Once the units were at a safe distance, James removed his eyepatch and slowly unraveled the bandages that covered the left side of his face. _They… don't need to see this…_ He thought as he looked in a mirror, his reflection showing his scarred left eye. It remained closed, but small amounts of blood poured from it like tears. _Damn. Out of all times for this to happen… Why here?_ He began to wipe his face before covering his face with a new set of bandages, discarding the bloodied ones into a bin. _I better get my work done quick, they're waiting for me._ He then resumed to synthesizing more items to prepare for the journey.

Meanwhile, the units stood near the arch that led into the town, waiting for their summoner.

Ardin leaned against the arch, staring into the ground with an expression that showed he was deep in thought.

Vargas knew what he was thinking about. "You noticed it too?"

Ardin nodded. "Yeah. I doubt it was just dizziness."

"Do you think it is related to what happened back in-"

"Maybe, but we can't say for sure."

Vargas and Ardin continued to talk with each other in a quiet conversation; all the while Tora stood there, head tilted in confusion as she had no idea what they were talking about.

After a few minutes, James emerged from the synthesis house and began to walk towards his units. "Everyone ready?" He asked. The units reluctantly nodded. "Is there something wrong?"

"Are you sure you're feeling alright?" Tora asked. "We could rest a little while longer so that you can-"

James cut her off. "I said that I'm fine." He said, trying his best to look calm. "But, my little accident earlier kind of threw me off schedule, we better move quickly before Tilith complains at us again." James began walking towards the gate once more, with the units following suit.

…

After going through the process of finding and crossing through the gate back into Grand Gaia again, the group found themselves in yet another forest, this time, they were not far from their intended destination. They were just a few hundred meters away from the tower. The group reached the entrance of the tower, where Tilith stood in front of the opening, impatient as always.

"Whats the reason this time?" She asked. She then noticed the slight bruising on James' face. "What happened?!"

"I… had a little accident earlier. I'm fine, really." He said, still maintaining his calm façade.

"Did you sleep well last night? Or did you have another nightmare?" Tilith asked, showing concern.

James shook his head. "I appreciate the concern, but I think we should be more concerned about what awaits us in this tower. Any clues as to what we are dealing with in there?"

Tilith shook her head. "Unfortunately, I don't exactly know what were up against. I can sense a strong presence there, but I don't know who's giving off that energy."

"I see. So it appears we're going in blind."

"I guess you can say that. But, I do know that there are many monsters in there. Finding that guardian won't easy."

"Why am I not surprised?" James sighed.

"You'll make it. If you and your units have gotten this far, then this shouldn't be hard for you, right?" Tilith asked with a smile.

James looked back to his units before looking back to Tilith. "Yeah… I guess so."

"Then let's go! But first, here." Tilith stretched out her hands towards James and chanted something. A warm glow came over James as his wounds were getting healed, he winced as this was happening.

"What was that for?" He asked.

"Well you did look a little beaten up, and you don't have a healer, so I took it upon myself to make sure you're ready to go." Tilith smiled.

James scratched his head. "Thank you, but I don't want to be too much trouble for you…"

Tilith kept smiling. "It's not a problem. Now let's go in! For real this time."

James turned to his units. "You heard the goddess. It's time we find this guardian." The group proceeded to enter the tower.

 _..._

The interior of the tower showed nothing more than a wide-open corridor, the ceiling was supported by rows of stone pillars. The group stood on a dusty blue carpet that formed a road leading to a set of stairs at the end of the hall. The view did not seem that new to the group, considering the fact that they had just traversed through some ruins just yesterday. Unlike the one back in Mirza, the corridor was much wider, giving more room to run or fly. It was very bright, as sunlight shone through the wide openings of the tower that showed the outside. They began walking around the corridor. Not even a minute had passed and the group was greeted by a cacophony of noises further down the hallway.

"Well, this is going to be interesting." Ardin sighed as he goes into a fighting stance.

"I couldn't agree more!" Vargas said as he took a step forward.

They were all enemies previously encountered in Mistral, there were no surprises monsters of every element would gather here to stop them.

"Wh-Whats the plan now?" Tora asked.

James pulled out his revolver as he replied. "Same tactic as before. We need to get to the top of this place. Isn't that right, Tilith?"

"Yes!" Tilith nodded.

"All right. All units, advance!" He commanded. And so they begin their assault in the Tower of Mistral.

* * *

 **This seems like another filler chapter, but I wanted to see how I can I also wanted to see if I can make my interpretation of how Karma is used when you upgrade the town. I also wanted to make James understand his units more, so I came up with a sort of dream sequence where he can see fragmented flashbacks of the units' past life, with more details being revealed as they evolve. (If someone else had this idea, then I'm sorry!) What do you guys think? Did I do well? Do you think I should continue using this idea later on? How could I improve? Don't hesitate to let me know.**


	19. Chapter 15: The Tower

Using their usual formation, the group began to defeat wave after wave of monsters as they ascended the tower, climbing long flights of spiral stairs as they entered each floor. The group's teamwork made the mission all the easier as the trees from the forest below grew further away. At this rate, the team seemed unstoppable, that is until a roar from down the hall stopped them in their tracks.

"What was that?" James asked as he aimed his revolver straight ahead.

"I don't like the sound of this…" Vargas said as he gripped his sword tightly.

A loud rumbling noise can be heard as two green glowing eyes pierced the darkness ahead, the minor quakes that accompanied it signaled the group that something big was approaching.

"Scatter!" James shouted as they all began to disperse, narrowly dodging a beast that charged at the party. A large green muscular monster crashed into the wall behind them, it thrashed about as its horns were stuck to the wall.

"I remember these things. That's a Behemoth!" Ardin said as he flew overhead.

Simultaneously, a shadow emerged outside, sending a mighty gust of the wind to the party as it crashed into the tower.

"A Wyvern too?!" Vargas shouted as he looked to the small blue dragon-like creature.

James wasn't familiar with these two creatures, but with the reactions coming from the units, he could tell that they were more formidable than the monsters the party have defeated previously. "We stick with the plan! Vargas! You and Tora deal with the Behemoth! Ardin and I will handle the Wyvern."

"Sounds like a plan!" Vargas responded. He then turned to Tora. "Looks like you're with me again. Ready?"

"Yeah." She nodded. They then faced the Behemoth, who breaks free from the wall. It turned around and glared at the duo. It let out a loud roar, knocking the two back.

"Hey, Tora. Remember how you trapped those Unicorns from earlier?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"I think this should work on this thing as well, do you think you can do that?

"I'll try…" she nodded

" I'll buy you some time. Get that attack ready" He faced to the beast as he shouted,"Hey! Over here!" The behemoth charged at the swordsman, he rolled to the side to dodge it. He began to repeat this process numerous times in an effort to keep it distracted. Tora in the meantime closed her eyes and channeled her energy to whatever was nearby. There were no signs of anything nature in the tower, the only target she could think of was the forest several floors below; it will take a while before the roots reached to her location. Unfortunately for Vargas, his pattern served to make the Behemoth angrier, its movements slowly becoming faster with every miss. This, in turn, made it difficult for Vargas to keep up with it, forcing him to take the next attack head on. He brought up his sword to block its horns, but the monster was clearly stronger as it slowly pushed him towards a wall. "Damn… This better work…" He said as the wall slowly got closer.

…

"Slippery little bastard, aren't you?." Ardin said as he flew after the Wyvern. The dragon-like creature moved swiftly around the corridor, dodging both Ardin's swings and James' shots. It flapped its wings to send the two flying, but they held their ground. Ardin charged at the Wyvern once more, but it flew up and out of his reach. It opened its mouth and fired a beam of light as a counter attack, it managed to hit Ardin on his back.

"Augh! Damn you!" he shouted as he is shot out of the sky. The fact the enemy was a light type made the attack all the more painful, much like his fight against Luna. Unlike that fight, however, this one was a tad stronger than her, and, admittedly, far less annoying. He regained his balance and landed on his feet. The monster targeted James next as hit dove down and charged, mouth wide open. The summoner stepped to the side and managed to dodge its fangs, but the wings were close enough to hit him, damaging him as he is knocked back.

"This thing may prove to be a little tougher than I anticipated." He said to himself as he took aim with his revolver. Looking down the iron sight, he fired on the beast once more; he fires twice with quick precision until it clicked, signaling he ran out of rounds. He then emptied out the chamber and reloaded before firing again. "Damn it." He growled as the wyvern once again dodged the bullets. It roared as light began gathering in its mouth, it was getting ready to charge up for another attack.

 _We'd better break this things concentration…_ James thought as he swapped his revolver with his sword. "Ardin! Let's eliminate this thing while it's open!"

"Fine then." He replied. The two proceeded to charge at the Wyvern at high speed and simultaneously attacked, but they missed again, much like their previous attempts. "I'll try to draw this things attention while you attack it from the rear," James instructed. The two moved into opposite directions. "OVER HERE YOU OVERSIZED LIZARD!" The summoner shouted at the top of his lungs, taunting at the creature. The Wyvern directed its attention to James as it began to flap its wings to create another gust of wind to knock him back while still charging its other attack. James rammed his sword into the ground and kept a firm grip so as to not get sent flying. "IS THAT THE BEST YOU GOT?!" he continued to taunt the Wyvern. Agitated, it charged at the summoner, its clawed feet outstretched to grab him. As it was doing so, Ardin kept his distance as he waited for an opening.

James rolled to the side to dodge the attack as he continues to spout insults at the Wyvern. "I'VE SEEN CHICKENS MOVE FASTER THAN YOU!" Now at its boiling point, the Wyvern glared at the summoner as it prepared to fire a more concentrated beam, when all of the sudden, it was struck from behind. Ardin was able to swoop in from its blind spot and left a large cut on its back. It let out a pained roar as the light in its mouth disappeared, its attack was halted. "I think this is it!" James shouted.

"Then what are we waiting for?" The two let out a battle cry as the pounced on the downed creature, but it still had some strength in it. Using its tail as a whip, it swung at the two and sent them flying towards the wall. "Damn it!" Ardin coughed. "I thought we had it!"

"We may need to come up with a different plan." James sighed.

…

The behemoth continued to push Vargas back, the wall was now very close. Vargas kept his ground as he strained himself to push the beast back, some sparks flew as his sword grinds along the behemoth's horns. He managed to hold on for so long, but time was running short. _Any time now…_ he thought. A rumbling noise can be heard below him as the ground shook a little. _Now we're talking!_ Vargas quickly moved to the side, allowing the beast to ram itself into the wall again. The vines and roots erupted from the ground as it bound the beast down, the thorns punctured its skin as it was now bleeding. Enraged, the beast moved back, snapping the roots and rips a large chunk of the wall with it and swung its head, sending it flying straight at Tora. The chunk broke into pieces as it flew through the air.

"Watch out!" Vargas cried as he was too far for her to reach. She doesn't notice the attack coming until she was hit by a couple of debris, breaking her concentration as she is sent flying towards the wall. "O-Ow…"

"Tch." Vargas looked around to see what else he should do. There was nothing on the floor he could use to distract it with. He looked to the side where James and Ardin were fighting the Wyvern, and the opening of the tower where it flew in. _I think I have an idea..._ The monster was prepared to charge at the downed unit before it directed its gaze to Vargas. "Hey! I'm closer! Come at me!" He waved his arms as he got its attention. With a sharp exhale through the nose, it ran towards Vargas who once again rolled to the side. "Guys! Watch out!" He yelled to the other two swordsmen.

James and Ardin both heard him and turned to see the behemoth charging straight for them.

"Is he nuts?!" Ardin exclaimed.

James looked to the wall and back at the behemoth before shouting, "I don't think so. Get out of the way!"

The two rolled away from the oncoming beast as it collided with the wyvern, impaling it with its two horns. The wyvern let out a pained screech as the behemoth crashes through the wall, damaging it even more. The two beast then began to fall from the tower, plummeting to the ground several floors below with a loud thud.

The two looked through the massive hole it left behind as the stared down. "Do you think it's still alive?" Ardin asked.

"With that big a fall, I doubt it, but at least we won't have to deal with it anytime soon." James replied. He then turned towards Vargas. "That as a good strategy, we killed two birds with one stone."

"Thanks." Vargas scratched his head. "But Tora…"

"What happened to her?" He interrupted.

"She got hurt during the battle, she's right over there." He pointed to the wall behind him, Tora was sitting against it, holding her injured arm.

"Tch." James ran to the corner and knelt in front of her. He held up a cure to her. "Take this, your wounds should heal if you drink this."

With a nod, she took the bottle and drank from it. Just as he said, her wounds faded as she regained her strength. "Thank you." She said as she got up.

"Do you think you can keep going?" He asked her.

"I'm fine…" Tora replied as she patted the dust off her dress.

"I don't know about you guys, but has anyone seen the goddess?" Vargas spoke up.

Ardin looked around and noticed she wasn't there. "That's odd, she was here earlier…" The group looked around their surroundings, Tilith was nowhere to be found. "Come to think of it, she usually never really does anything, except somehow making it to the other areas before us and healing James before entering this place."

"Now that I think about it, she did some sort of spell that helped be activate my brave burst for the first time, but she only did that once." Vargas said.

"Huh. I wonder what else she can do…"

"I hate to interrupt your conversation," James intervened. "But we still need to clear this tower, we don't exactly have the luxury of resting right now, especially since this place is still crawling with monsters."

The group continued their assault, dispatching more enemies as they got closer to the top of the tower. What was odd was that there were fewer monsters than before, and there were signs of someone had already passed by. The group had a clue who may have passed through here as the continued on. As they exited the last flight of stairs, they spotted Tilith standing at a corner.

"About time you guys showed up!" she said.

"How do you keep getting ahead of us?" James asked.

"Well, I didn't want you to do all the work." She boasted. "I was able to beat one or two monsters on the way here."

"That explains the lack of monsters." Ardin mumbled. "I guess you aren't a complete coward after all."

"Hey! I heard that!" Tilith retorted.

"Can you tell us what's up ahead? Since you're already here." James asked, redirecting the conversation.

"The good news is that we're now on the top floor, and there is a door just up ahead." She chimed.

"And the bad news?"

"It's guarded."

James walked over to the corner and takes a look. Up ahead were a pair of large doors as Tilith claimed, and the six king slimes, all representing the six different elements, bounced in front of the door. Having already eliminated the two beasts a few floors ago, this should prove to be a simple task. "Everyone! Attack!" he shouted. With the same level of coordination they had displayed many times before, they were able to defeat all the slimes with little effort, and without the use of any brave bursts. As the last slime disappeared, as if it was scripted, the ground began to shake as the doors slowly began to open. The opening showed nothing more but darkness ahead, and the cool air coming from the gap hint at something ominous ahead.

"The guardian should be in this room." Tilith then turned to the squad. "Is everyone ready?"

Everyone nodded in response.

"Then let's go." One by one, the group members walked through the door. After everyone entered the room, the doors slammed shut and the room fell into darkness. The cold air certainly didn't help them cope with the situation.

"It's so dark in here…" Tora whispered.

"Then stay close." Ardin said with the same volume. "This include you too, goddess."

"I know that!" She whispered harshly.

The group traversed in the empty room, unsure where they are going. A sudden wave of dizziness came over James. Fortunately for him, the darkness made it so that no one else noticed. _Damn it!_ He thought as he clutched his head. _I can't let it happen again! I just have to keep it together…_

"I have a bad feeling about this." Vargas whispered. "Do you think the Gods were expecting us?"

"They knew we were coming the moment we started this journey." James replied. "They definitely would have something planned for us here."

"How very observant of you." A voice rang out in the darkness.

As if on cue, The lights suddenly turned on, illuminating the area leading to the door while leaving the far end of the room dark. The voice spoke again.

"I congratulate you on making it this far, foolish summoner."

* * *

 **Sorry about the late update. A lot of things university-related had to be done and I start tomorrow, So I decided to make up with uploading two chapters at once. So to the followers of this story, If my chapters seem lacking compared to previous chapters, I apologize. For the most part, it's been pretty hard to figure out how I would approach these chapters with an original idea and it gave me some problems while writing, which led me to have a case of writer's block. But luckily I was able to have a clue as to how I will approach the later chapters of the story.**

 **So far it pretty much followed the games canon, but later I will try to go a little deeper into my characters perspective as well as the NPCs perspective as I had stated in a previous chapter. It will take a while for that idea to come into effect, but I promise that this will happen once I get started with the Morgan Arc. Expect Updates to be slow and I hope you all bear with me. Also if you haven't given me a unit suggestion of what I should have James summon next, let me know by PM or review so I can make a poll.**


	20. Chapter 16: The Mechanical Monstrosity

"I must commend you for your efforts in crossing this continent." The voice continued. "And for slaying each and every one of my followers in your quest to find me."

James stepped forward. The wide space of the room made it difficult in locating the source of the voice as it echoed off the walls, but a few details stood out. Other than the fact that the voice in question was feminine, the timing and words left obvious hints as to who was speaking. "I presume this is the Creation God Maxwell speaking?"

"You aren't as oblivious as I thought you would be." Maxwell replied. "Unfortunately for you, I am not present at the moment, but as you have stated before, I did have something planned for you here."

"What are the Gods planning? Why destroy humanity?" He asked.

"Impatient, are we?" Maxwell chuckled. "I do not have the time to answer all of your questions. But, I have laid out a test for you."

"A test?"

A short silence fell over the room before Maxwell broke the silence. "I want to test you to see how capable as a summoner you really are. I have prepared a puppet suited for this task." Just as she finished that sentence, the lights from the other side of the room began to light up one by one until a massive figure was revealed. On the other side stood a mechanical being. Its entire appearance resembled like that of a centaur, having a quadrupedal lower half and a humanoid torso, albeit the legs having more of a reptilian appearance than a horse and its head having a sort of draconic appearance. Two blade-like wings shone brightly as the light reflected off of them. It stood limp, it body hunched over and its eyes devoid of any life as it sits inactive. What made it most unsettling was that its entire appearance, especially its limbs, seemed like a composite of metal plating and living tissue, giving it its strange appearance. Maxwell continued. "I recently have been interested in this "technology" you humans have conceived. I have decided to "refurbish" an old relic from the war, and this was the result."

James eyed the machine curiously. "So this is how it's going to be?" He looked back to the party. "Are you all ready?" The units nodded, gripping their weapons tightly. "We're ready."

"Very well then." Maxwell chuckled again as a snap can be heard. "Juggernaut, awaken."

The machine whirred at the command, the red vein-like circuits on its body glowed as it sprung to life. The ground began to shake as it stepped forward. Its eyes began to glow the same hue of red as the circuits as it stared at the party.

"Have fun, I look forward to seeing the results." Maxwell said before her voice fell silent.

"Number of combatants: 4" A low digitized voice boomed from the Juggernaut. "Threat level: Moderate. All have been registered as high-level targets."

"Whats it doing?" Vargas asked.

"It's scanning us, looking to see how strong we are." James replied.

"One combatant detected to be of the earth element. Taking precautions due to elemental disadvantage."

Ardin looked to James. "You don't think…?"

"Yeah." He looked to Tora. "She has the elemental advantage."

Tora looked up at the Juggernaut, clearly looking intimidated. "I-I Have to fight THAT?"

"Not by yourself." Ardin said. "We're helping out as well."

The Juggernaut spoke again. "Objective confirmed: Eliminate all threats to Maxwell. Initiating combat protocol." It stretched out its arms, energy began to gather from its palms.

"Oh no… MOVE!" James shouted as the Juggernaut fired two powerful lasers at them. The group moved to opposite directions as they jumped away from the blast, the attack left a massive hole from where they once stood.

Ardin turned to James. "You seem to know a lot about how this thing works. What do we do now?"

James took a quick glance at the Juggernaut before facing to his party. "We need to find a weak point. The Juggernaut should have some sort of power source."

"Power source?" Ardin asked, not understanding what he was talking about.

"It's kind of like a heart. If we can get rid of it, it won't be able to do anything."

Vargas stepped forward. "That sounds easy enough." Without giving it a second thought, he rushes up to the Juggernaut blade in hand.

"Wait!" James called out. "I forgot to tell you that-!" Just before he could finish the sentence, Vargas jumped up and swung his sword at the Juggernauts chest. Vargas staggered back as the blade bounced off its chest plate before being punched. He coughs as he is launched towards the party, hitting the wall behind them.

"That… really smarts…" Vargas coughed.

"I was going to say that the enemy has heavy armor." James sighed. "We can't just simply run up and attack it."

"Then what do you think we should do?" Vargas asked.

"We aim for the weak points in its armor. First, we'll take its legs out to restrict its movements." He pointed to the legs and then aim for any openings. Is that clear?"

The Units nodded.

"Let's move!" on his command, the group split off into different directions, each of them targeting one of the Juggernauts legs. A ball of light appeared on the tips of each wind and began to fire rapid shots of small energy bullets at the party. The males deflected each shot with their weapons while Tora weaved around the room to dodge them. Simultaneously, each group member swung their weapons at the legs, causing significant damage to them. With its legs weak, the Juggernaut had a hard time standing as its legs gave out. It fell to the ground with a crash, but it was still standing upright. All the while, Tilith stood there observing the battle, watching in anticipation just as a child would.

"All legs have been severely damaged. Now recalibrating to compensate for restricted movement. Initiating counterattack." The balls of light glowed again lightning bolts rained down at the party. The squad found themselves dancing around the chamber in an effort to dodge each shot.

"Wait a second. This is just like back in the wetlands!" Ardin shouted as he flew through the air. Reminded of the attacks made by Grafl, Weiss, and May, he began blocking each bolt with no problem.

Vargas swung his sword to block an oncoming bolt. "Yeah! Maybe we can send these things back at it?"

"Sounds like a plan!" The two put their plan into motion as they began to deflect the bolts back onto the Juggernaut, disabling two of the four energy orbs, the explosions that came from them damaged a part of its wings. At the same time, they were able to leave a few crack in the Juggernauts armor, but it was still not weak enough for a coordinated attack yet.

Tora in the mean time was frantically dodging the lightning bolts still while concentrating her power to the vines she summoned a few floors below to assist her. They slithered through the hallway, traversing through the stairwells before they burst out of the ground. They formed a protective dome over her, absorbing the lightning. "Okay…" She said to herself. "Here it goes…" With the flick of the wrist, the vines began to charge at the Juggernaut, some swatting bolts before destroying the third energy orb, which caused further damage to its wings in the process. Some of them wrapped themselves around the Juggernaut and bound it to the ground. The eyes began to flicker as it struggled to break free.

"Taking substantial damage from the attack. Poison and injury have been afflicted. Offensive parameters have been decreased."

It was strange, seeing a machine being affected by poison of all ailments. Though this did make sense, as the behemoth had some organic components. But what about injury? Perhaps this was a type of infliction that, as the Juggernaut stated, reduces an enemy's offensive capabilities. James took note of this as he disables the final energy orb with a couple of well-aimed shots with his revolver. With the last of the orbs destroyed, the behemoth reeled back as the resulting explosion caused enough damage to the wings where they began to fall apart.

With that the Juggernaut let out a digitized screech, causing the group, including Tilith, to cover their ears and flinch.

"Activating Plasma Shotgun." It boomed as it opened its maw. In it, a ball of concentrated plasma began to form as it began to charge the attack. It then sent the ball towards the party, separating into smaller, faster projectiles as they flew through the air. James stood in front of Tilith, protecting her from the oncoming attacks. Vargas and Ardin resumed their usual strategy in deflecting the shots while Tora created a wall of vines to shield herself with. This strategy would prove fruitless, however, as the projectiles were simply too fast for the swordsmen to keep up and the plasma was able to penetrate the vine wall respectively. Fortunately, they were able to shrug off the attack, but now they were left with a problem: the armor cracked, but it was still not enough for it to be broken and, despite its legs being damaged and hit with some status ailments, it showed no signs of relenting.

Ardin looked to his summoner. "Now would be the time to use our brave bursts?"

James nodded. "Fine. Guys, do your thing." And at once, the units began to shout their respective brave bursts.

"Flare Ride!"

"Plum Scent!"

"Rose Spinel!"

The attacks simultaneously connected, and a thick cloud of dust covered the battlefield as the Juggernaut took the attack head on.

"D-Did that do it?" Tora wondered.

"I hope so." Vargas replied.

As the dust settled, the Juggernaut is shown to have numerous scratches on its armor and parts of its limbs that were not protected. A viscous black fluid dripped from its cut, presumably oil. "Numerous breaches detected on armor. Body has sustained significant damage from attack and health has dropped to less than forty percent." It then faced the party, particularly at the summoner. "Query: Why do you stand against the Fallen Gods?"

"So NOW this thing wants to talk?" Ardin sighed.

James stood silent for a moment before giving his response. "The gods want to destroy humanity. I couldn't allow such a thing to happen."

"Running Diagnostics. Results: Your claim holds doubt. There is a possibility of you having an ulterior motive."

The units, as well as Tilith, began to stare at James with doubtful expressions.

"What does it mean by that?" Tilith asked him.

James fell silent for a moment. "Yeah. I guess I do have some doubts. I haven't gotten used to this world and I was skeptical about the situation at first, but since I have already started, I have to finish it. I can't turn back now."

"Rebuttal: How can you move forward with a lack of motivation?"

"If there is a possibility that there is a threat that may compromise the safety and freedom of the masses, that's something I can't ignore."

The Juggernaut fell silent for a moment. "Freedom? This term is unfamiliar. Requesting elaboration on the subject."

The group looked at each other, neither of them knew how to approach this. Everyone remained silent.

"Running searches in vocabulary database" The Juggernauts eyes flickered as it tried to find a meaning behind the word. "Freedom: Noun, To act, speak or think without any restraint. Other meanings include being in a state without dominance or control. Statement: Do you not realize that this is why the Gods wanted to destroy humanity? Humans have become too independent to the point where their existence is detrimental to the world?"

James was already in a bind from the Juggernauts claim that he had other reasons for being in Grand Gaia, which was true, though this gave given Tilith and the units the impression that he had a dubious background. He would have to give them a proper explanation later, but right now he had to worry about the current situation. "There are ways humans tried to keep order within society. They created laws to keep everything in check." He expected the Juggernaut to cut him off and counter that statement, but he was met something unexpected instead.

"Law… Order…" It said. "Why do those words sound… Familiar?" There was no facial expression to help verify, but it seemed to be remembering something. "Those terms… Yes… That person strongly believed in that concept…"

Ardin took a step forward. "So you're a prisoner."

The Juggernaut turned over to Ardin, most likely confused.

"You probably had someone who taught you a thing or two, right? What would that person say if they saw you like this, a puppet to someone else's will?"

"They… They would-" Just as it was about to speak, it recoiled in pain as white sparks flew from its head.

"Well, I did not expect you to break free from my control that quickly." A familiar voice echoed.

James immediately knew that Maxwell was making her intervention. She was still observing their battle. "Tch."

"I guess any creation can be flawed. Especially if one was just a simple redesign of something that already exists, or rather, something that used to."

"Damn you!" Ardin growled, frantically looking around where Maxwell might be, but it was no use.

The Juggernaut then stopped moving as it faced the party once more. Maxwell once again ordered the automaton to do her bidding. "You know what must be done."

It became a mindless puppet once again as it restated its objective. "…Exterminating all hostiles. Preparing High-Powered Laser." It then opened its mouth and raised its hands, a ball of energy formed in its mouth and the palms of its hands.

"Umm… what is it doing?" Vargas wondered.

"Oh great…" James muttered. "Everyone! Put your guards up! Quickly, before-" Before he was able to complete his order, the attack was already charged. The Juggernaut, despite its legs being damaged, leaped high into the air and aimed its attack to the party.

James quickly ran towards Tilith and stood in front of her, bringing his sword up as he prepared to defend the oncoming laser, the units all assumed a defensive position as well.

"Firing High-Powered Laser." The balls of energy each fired a laser, which would converge and form a single, larger and concentrated beam on the party. The laser blast radius covered most of the room and was unavoidable, everyone took the attack head on. The large crack from before grew, forming more cracks that spread out and the floor began to weaken. Eventually, the floor beneath them crumbled from the force of the laser and the group began to fall towards the floor below. Despite having their guards up, it was still very painful. If the attack didn't hurt, the fall certainly would. The Juggernaut fell along with them, the ground shook violently as it collided with the floor.

Tora had some problems in getting up. As an earth elemental, damage that would have been inflicted on her were minimal, but the fall made things more difficult. Ardin was barely able to regain his balance and landed on his feet before hitting the ground using his wings, but the attack left him paralyzed. Vargas was just as unfortunate, with part of the contribution coming from the fact he was the lowest in terms of rarity out of all the units in the group.

The party all groaned as they struggled to get up. Tilith wasn't in much pain as the others as James took the hit for her. Like everyone she fell down, but being a Disciple she was able to shrug most of the pain off. "Are you all okay?" She asked.

"Does it look like we're okay?" Vargas replied as he got up, using his sword as support. "How's James?"

James struggled to get up, but fell to his knees and clutched his chest.

Tilith ran to his side and knelt beside him. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine…" He responded. "An attack like that won't put me down that easily." He stared ahead at the Juggernaut.

The Juggernaut was a mess, its feet were broken, rendering movement useless. Its armor showed more cracks from before, most likely due to the fall, all the while more of the black fluid poured from its wounds. However, its eyes were still glowing, it was still functioning. "He-He-Health dropping to critical levels." Its voice was more distorted now. "I-I Must… co-complete my objective… Re-Recharging High-Powered L-Laser…" It slowly raised its arms and opened its mouth as it prepared to attack a second time. The units were in no condition to move. An attack like that was already painful, but they doubt that they will be as lucky the second time. James left a few cures and stimulants to his group before walking forward.

"What are you doing?" Tora asked.

James had his back turned to the party. "Get yourselves healed up and prepare to hit it with your brave bursts again. I'll divert its attention to me to give you the time."

"Are you crazy?!" Tilith shouted. "You won't be able to take another hit by that thing!"

"Not unless it's interrupted." James pressed onward, gripping his sword tightly. _I need to get rid of this excess energy in me._ He thought as he clutched his chest once again. _I have to use it again. Let's hope I can keep it together this time…_ His movement slowly progressed from a light jog to running to sprinting as he quickly closes the gap. Fortunately, the time it took for the laser to charge was significantly longer due to its injuries. James threw his sword, accurately landing on the crack on its chest plate, but it did nothing as the Juggernaut continued to charge its attack. Shortly afterward, he rips off the bandages covering his arm, it glowed an ominous dark purple aura. He jumped up and kicks the pommel of the sword, plunging it deeper into the Juggernauts chest. The force of the attack was enough to stagger the machine back, halting its attack and causing more cracks to form on its chest plate. The sword's crossguard and hilt were left protruding from its chest.

"Sudden increase detected on the primary target. Threat level has been reclassified to High. Initiating counter attack." It then swatted James out of the way with its arms, sending him flying over the group and to the wall behind them, much like what it did to Vargas.

"James!" Tilith cried.

"I'm okay! Just make sure the units get their attack ready!" James sprang out from the hole he left in the wall and sprinted up to the Juggernaut again, unleashing a flurry of kicks and punches on its torso while the units began to charge up their own attack. Surprisingly, they were very effective in driving it back, leaving slight dents in its armor. The Juggernaut counters his combo by hammering down on the floor in an attempt to crush the summoner, but with the injuries it sustained, it wasn't fast enough. James used its arms as a platform in order to reach to his sword. After pulling it out of its chest, he let loose yet another combo on the Juggernaut, performing unbelievably fast swings on its chest plate in midair. All the while he roared as the same aura the surrounded his arm faintly spread throughout his entire body. The chest plate broke apart after what felt like a hundred swings, revealing the Juggernauts exposed chest. The circuit-like veins traced along its dark gray skin to a peculiar looking apparatus that most likely served as served as its heart. He then lifted his sword, the same dark energy enveloped its blade. He swung down, sending a dark purple energy wave at the Juggernaut. As it connected, it was knocked back again Having taken too much damage, it slumped over, its arms becoming limp as its eyes rapidly flickered. James panted heavily, his eyes glaring at the automaton.

"E-End… Me…" The Juggernaut boomed.

James snapped out of whatever trance he was on as he kept his gaze on it.

"I… wi-wish to be free… Finish me off… be-before Maxwell interferes again…"

James gripped his sword tightly. Such a thing would be an act of euthanasia. He wanted to find another way out of this, but by this point, there was no other option. If they had to progress further, the Juggernaut had to be destroyed, regardless if it was a prisoner or not. With a solemn expression, James nodded. "I will oblige. We'll end your suffering." He then faced to his units. "All set?" The units nodded. James began to back up. "Then do it."

Once again each of the units called out their brave bursts as they charged at the downed Juggernaut.

"Flare Ride!"

"Plum Scent!"

"Rose Spinel!"

The attacks connected once more, resulting in yet another explosion. The Juggernaut took the attacks with no resistance, embracing what was coming to it. A faint "Thank You" echoed from it before it slumped over. Its eyes slowly faded as it ceased to function. With nothing left to keep it together, the limbs began to fall one by one, more of its armor breaking apart as it crumbled to pieces. The same black liquid that poured from its wounds earlier now pooled beneath it as all that was left was a pile of scrap and flesh.

"It over..." James said as the aura faded away, looking exhausted from straining himself.

Ardin stared at the mess before looking to his summoner, still remembering what the Juggernaut said and what he just witnessed. "You know you're going to have to explain yourself once we head back, right?"

James simply nodded.

"That was quite the spectacle." Maxwells voiced echoed. "Juggernaut had performed admirably, but even it cannot stand against you. I am impressed."

James said nothing as he clenched his fist, ignoring Maxwells possibly sarcastic praise.

"Nothing to say after all that? No boasting? This was no easy task."

"We held up our end of the deal…" James growled. "Now you must do yours."

"A promise is a promise. I will grant you an audience with me at St. Lamia and you will have your answers there. That is if you can make it there. But for now, here is my reward to you for your efforts." The group heard a soft hiss coming from the wreckage that used to be a Juggernaut. A small compartment opened on the apparatus as a gem popped out and rolled towards the summoner.

James looked down on the gem and gingerly picked it up . "Oh, we will." He whispered.

The voice said nothing else, Maxwell presumably had cut communications with them.

James kept his head down as he asked Tilith. "What happens next?"

"You should be contacted by Lord Lucius himself. He'll tell you where to go next."

"And when and how will he contact me?"

"Oh, you'll know right about… Now."

At that moment, James experienced a sharp pain go through his head and clutched it as he fell to his knees once again. "Wh-What happening?!" He shouted before abruptly blacking out.

The units moved close to see what was happening to their summoner, but Tilith cut them off. "Don't worry. He'll be fine." She said with a smile. "Just give him a few minutes."

In James' head, his surroundings were quickly becoming blurry, all color slowly fading away before he found himself in darkness, floating in a familiar plain of nothingness.

* * *

 _ **Area Clear! Gem count: 5**_

 **I honestly didn't think that I would make it this far since I started this project in January. So many setbacks happened in those last 9 months that it took me so long to actually get here. Now looking at this chapter, I wanted to find a different approach to how the Juggernaut fight would go, instead of the group just attacking the thing just because it's a boss. Since Rotciv brought the information of the Juggernaut being a manipulated Voldoga, I wanted to try that out in my own way. Though, I think one other writer had already touched upon that idea already (Sorry if it sounds like I'm ripping off ideas, my brain hasn't been working all that well lately due to University.). Expect a** **nother intermission chapter and a probable unit introduction chapter before I get started with the Morgan Arc. Hopefully my plan of going into other characters perspective will go well.**

 **Also regarding the next unit to summon, it seems that the general consensus (and by that I mean two people) voted in favor for Krantz. I can definitely see him add more to the plot in the future, so expect him to be introduced later. As always, what do you guys think of the chapter? Did I do okay for a boss fight? Could I have improved it? Let me know through review, any feedback is appreciated.**


	21. Intermission 4: Pursuit

"Wah?!" Squealed Valerie as the distant sound of a distant explosion jolted her awake from her sleep. She sat upright and rubbed her head as she still felt a little drowsy from the sudden awakening. Beams of light pierced the tree line and onto the clearing below as it was already morning. The fire has long since died out, all that was left were ashes within a ring of stones. Her clothes still felt a little damp from the rain yesterday, but at this point, she went in deep in this rabbit hole that she had to bear with it. She may as well settle with handling her clothes later. "How long was I out for?" She asked herself as she turned on her phone. She noticed half of its battery was already used up. "I should've turned it off last night…" She sighed as she searched for the clock application and looked at the stopwatch. Her eyes widened in her surprise. On the screen, it displayed that a little over eighteen hours had already passed. "I didn't think I was out for this long." She had not kept track of the time that went by, luckily, she still had some time before the deadline. As long as she does not get sidetracked, James would be found before the forty-eight hour period was up. A notification appeared, stating that the tracking device was active. She quickly checked the map, but the topography of the region wasn't available as all she could see was a black grid over a gray screen. It did, however, show a red dot pointing northwest from her present location, the same direction where she heard the explosion.

"What were you doing?" Valerie wondered as she began walking. She found herself standing before the remains of a building of some sort. Judging by its appearance, it could have been a religious institute of some sort. The doors that led into the building were already open. _Someone must have gone in, but who?_ She thought. Valerie then proceeded to enter the building and was taken in by the interior. It was nothing like she had ever seen before, the markings that decorated the columns, the floor, and the ceiling were unfamiliar to her, and the corridor was illuminated by a pale green light. She began to walk around the ruined interior, looking at her surroundings. When she decided to look back, however, the atmosphere became quite unsettling. Two craters, each on opposite sides of the wall behind, were seen. She walked close to one of them and felt a faint trace of light energy emanating from it. _Something tells me I might not be the only one here…_

She continued walking throughout the corridor, the strange energy readings became more evident as she delved deeper into the ruins. Certainly, there had been some sort of struggle around here, and this suspicion was confirmed as she began to spot numerous craters similar to before on the ground and on the walls, as well as some burnt rings. She began to feel faint traces of other elemental energy in the area, namely that of fire, earth, and dark. "Something must have happened here." As she found herself near an exit, her eyes widened. Resting on the ground ahead was a discarded spear. What shocked her was that there were bloodstains on the floor around it as well as the spear itself. It was hard to tell how long it was there for as it was dried up, but the remnants of magical traces within the building led her to believe that they were related somehow. If that was the case, then certainly whatever battle had taken place here could have happened recently, maybe just before she had arrived here. She exited the building and found herself within yet another forest. She continued running through the path in hopes of catching up to him before something else happened.

In a few seconds, she barged through an old gate that led towards another old building. The dark atmosphere around her greatly contrasted with the ruins bright one. It did hold the same unsettling feeling, however, as she felt the same energy around her too. "It looks like I'm on the right track," Valerie said as she looked at the map on her phone again. Once again, there was still no visual, just the same red dot. She looked up to see that it was pointing to a large tower in the distance, and what appeared to be smoke pouring through an opening on the upper floors. "What's going on?" She wondered as she ran towards the other side of the yard, ignoring the building that stood in front of her.

As she was about to make her way to the gate, something tripped her over. She turned around to see a bony hand had taken hold of her leg as a skeleton used her as leverage to pull itself out of the ground. "Get off me!" Valerie cried as she performs a hard kick at the skeletons skull, knocking it off its shoulders with a noticeable pop. The hand loses its grip as the rest of the body slowly fades away along with its detached head. She quickly gets up, only to find out that more skeletons had converged on to her location, surrounding her and blocking the exit. She quickly unsheathed her longsword a she looks straight ahead. _I don't have time to fight them all. I just need to get to that exit._ She quickly charges straight to the gate, weaving her way around the skeletons while parrying oncoming swings. She makes it to the gate in little time at all, sprinting towards a trail to distance herself from the skeleton horde as much as possible.

The rattling of bones slowly died out as she finds herself a stone throw away from her destination. With no signs of monsters in sight, she took this moment to catch her breath. "I should… really… get more exercise…" she complained between breaths. She looked up at the tower, smoke was still rising from the upper floors , but she was now close enough to hear the faint sound of explosions and something crashing from the upper floors. The energy readings were much stronger now, and she could easily sense someone familiar within the tower. "I found you!" She began to run towards the tower, but the sound of rustling leaves prevent her from doing so. Valerie turned towards the source of the racket to be met with the sound of thundering footsteps coming towards her. "Give me a break!" she groaned as she gripped her longsword tightly. In the distance, she could see what appeared to be some sort of beast charging at her. As it got closer, she was able to get a better look at the attacker. It appeared to have suffered numerous wounds before hand, numerous cuts were seen all over its body, and its horns were cracked. She quickly rolled to the side to avoid the attack, letting the creature crash into a tree behind her. Due to its injuries, it had a hard time trying to get its horns out of the tree; it let out a pained growl as it broke free, but it had lost the strength to stand, and its legs gave out from exhaustion.

Valerie looked at the monster with a saddened look. It tried to attack her, but looking at its state made her wonder if it was right to put it out of its misery. If she healed it, who knows what it would do? Against her better judgment, she reluctantly walked up to the monster and extended her arms out, her whole body began to shine as a warm light enveloped the creature, slowly healing its wounds after a while, the cuts slowly began to vanish, but the cracked horn remained the same. As she finished healing it, she began to stand back, in the likelihood that it might attack again. The monster slowly turned to Valerie, its eyes fixated on her as it glared at her. "Why?" It growled. "Why would you, a human, heal me?"

 _It spoke?!_ Valerie was taken aback by the monsters capability to speak. "I… I…"

"Speak up!" It growled again, this time in an angrier tone.

Valerie took a moment to regain her composure before responding. "Because it.. wouldn't feel right if I just killed you in that state."

The behemoth continued to glare at Valerie for a few moments before uttering what sounded like a chuckle. "Foolish girl…"

Valerie looked up longsword in hand.

"If you think that kindness will get you anywhere, then you are more naïve than I thought."

Valerie slowly stepped back, hand firmly gripped on the hilt of her sword.

"However… I will let you go this time. But know this, not everyone in this world is as merciful as I am." And with that, it slowly turned around and began to walk away, leaving her with that ominous warning in mind.

Valerie looked down as she thought over what it had said, but the sound of another explosion broke her concentration. She looked up as she spots numerous lights flickering from the upper floors. _That noise… I better hurry!"_ She quickly ran inside and traversed through the corridors. The fact that the area seemed devoid of any potential monsters made ascending the tower significantly easier, especially with the vast size of each floor. She was already out of breath as she made her way to the next flight of stairs, her pace faltered as she became exhausted from all the running she had to do today. She looked up as she began to hear voices coming from above her. It was clear someone was there, but it was hard to make out what they were saying. She slowly continued to make her way up the steps keeping her breathing to a minimum in hopes not to get caught.

Upon reaching the last step, a bright light shined brightly in the hallway ahead of her. Valerie quickly shielded her eyes in hopes not to get blinded. The flash lasted for only a moment, and the light disappears. She slowly began to walk towards an opening, only to be met with yet another peculiar sight. Up ahead was what appeared to be a pile of scrapped metal and flesh. The sight nearly made her gag, but the sight of the destruction around her helped her keep her mind elsewhere. Clearly, there was another struggle and a more recent one at that. _That mess must have something to do with it_. Valerie thought as she began to explore the floor. She looked up to see a gaping hole in the ceiling. The traces of magical energy were much stronger compared to the previous areas. Her phone began to vibrate and she picked it up. She looked at the map again to find out that the dot had disappeared, this, accompanied with the scenery in front of her, confirmed her previous suspicion. "Damn it!" she bit her lower lip in frustration. "I was so close!" She exited the corridor and laid down against a wall to rest. "I guess it's back to square one…" She muttered.

…

 _Kagan Desert, Morgan_

"So far, there's nothing." The blue haired summoner observed his surroundings. Nothing but cacti, dried up bones, and sand as far as the eyes can see. He and Seria had been separated by a sudden sandstorm. It is clear now, but the uncertainty of another one occurring was still present. His squadron had scattered to cover more ground, and none of them had reported back yet. Despite not knowing where she may be at the moment, she must have already caught up with the other members of her squadron by now. The monsters in the area were plentiful, making their search efforts a little problematic, but they were low ranked monsters, so there was little to worry about. Though the threat that Graham posed, that was a different story.

Karl placed his hand to his side, where he had sustained an injury before that inflicted him with heavy poison. Had that stranger not been there, he would have succumbed to the poison a long time ago. Still, the stranger's motives, how he suddenly appeared out of nowhere and the faint traces of unfamiliar energy that emanated from him made him all the more suspicious. He brushed this thought aside, right now he had a mission, he would have to notify the Summoners Hall about it later. "Have you found anything, Sergio?" He asked to his unit, who appeared by his side.

"Nothing yet. the target has not been found yet."

"I see, well let's continue to keep an eye out for-" Just as he was about to finish, the buzzing of the communicator signaled that one of the troops had something to report. "Have you found anything?" he asked the recipient on the other line. He was met with frantic, short breaths as if the recipient was running from something.

"Commander!" a male voice cried from the other end. "I found the target! I'm currently engaging the enemy!"

Karls' eyes widened at the soldier's reckless move. His group was specifically ordered not to combat Graham unless the whole group was present. Karl instinctively grabbed his communicator and contacted with the rest of the squadron. "This is Karl to all members of the 24th division! Graham has been spotted! Everyone meet up at the designated rendezvous point so we can plan our course of attack!" There was no response on the other end, just static. "24th division, respond!" he yelled again. A few voices begin to respond through the static.

"Graham's found me! He-AUGH!"

"Sir! We have a man down! we need a healer no-"

"We need reinforcements! We're not going to ma-"

They were suddenly cut off by something. Gripping the communicator tightly, Karl quickly began to run towards the source of the signal with Sergio following suit. A few Orthos tried to pounce on the summoner, but they were quickly cut down as they continued to run. as he arrived at the location that the group was supposed to meet up, he was met with a horrible sight. His fellow squad members lay on the floor, all suffering large gashes. It was obvious as to who did this, and luckily for him, the culprit stood just a few hundred meters ahead.

Graham held his scythe and slung it over his shoulder as he faced Karl, grinning a sadistic grin as he did so. "Ah, so the 'Brave Knight' has come back for another round?" he sneered. "How many times have we done this? I know I haven't kept track."

Karl held his halberd tightly as he goes into a fighting stance. "I'm not going to let you get away this time!"

Graham began to chuckle, which slowly progressed to laughter. "Always the fun one! As much as I would love to play again, I'm afraid that my energy was spent playing with your friends. And it appears I am needed elsewhere." Just as the demon finished talking, the wind slowly began to howl and pick up in speed. Another sandstorm was brewing. "Just in time to say farewell. As for your comrades, they are fine, for now." He cackled once again as the sandstorm begins to pick up, the grains of sand were picked up by the wind and begin to obscure Karls view.

"Wait!" Karl cried, but it was useless, and Graham disappeared within the sandstorm. Karl bit his lip in frustration as he looked down on his allies. A few were coughing, no doubt affected by poison, others were twitching from paralysis and others glowed a faint red aura from being cursed. "Come to me, Exvehl!" He called forth one of his other units, and it appeared with a bright flash.

"What do you need from me, my summoner?" the beast asked in a form of telepathy.

"I need you to cure the others of their ailments. Can you do that?"

"By your command." The Beast God trotted forward. Standing on its hind legs, it began to call out its brave burst. "Cure Levin Field!" It then stomped with its front legs, and a pulse of electricity made a shockwave from the impact. The electricity surged through the fellow demons slayers, but it did not hurt them. The sparks began to glow brighter as their ailments began to disappear, they were cured in a matter of seconds. Still, there was the issue of their injuries, and unfortunately for Karl, they were in no shape to call out their own units, and he himself does not own a healing unit. He picked up his communicator, hopefully, he could get into contact with someone before the sandstorm blocks communication.

...

 _Somewhere in Elgaia..._

A young man yawned as the sun's rays pierced through the curtains and shined in his eyes. "Bah... let me sleep..." He groaned as turned to face away from the window and threw a pillow over his head in hopes to try to get to sleep again. This, unfortunately, would not be possible as the loud buzz from a distant room made any attempts to sleep impossible. "Oh great. What now?" He sighed as he tried to get out of bed. The daily challenge of trying to get out of bed was always tedious, and the fact his legs were rendered useless certainly did not help. He struggled to get out of bed and onto a wheelchair, nearly knocking over his old spear in the process. he looked to it with a nostalgic expression, how he wished to get back to the field and assist the Summoners hall with their surveys again, but acting as a navigator will have to do for now. He wheeled over to the room next to his bedroom. The room itself was a mess, papers scattered everywhere on the floor and on the table from the haphazard attempts to document them all. He certainly was not the best at organizing, and it showed.

He wheeled over to the desk at the end of the room where a computer sat, still active all this time. A notification stated that someone was trying to call. Putting on a headset, the young man then accepted to the call, the monitor immediately switched to displaying a map, showing a top-down view of a desert. "How can I help you?" He greeted the person at the other end.

"Huh?" a male voice responded on the other end. "I thought Lin would be the one to pick up."

"Oh, I think she is busy trying to help out Seria at the moment. So what do you need, Karl?" He asked, still tired from the rude awakening.

"We have casualties. My group was attacked by Graham and they need medical assistance. Can you notify the Logistics Division and see if we can't get some reinforcements?"

His eyes widened. "Casualties? How many are we talking here?"

"Five are wounded and need medical assistance." Karl responded.

"I'll get right on that, in the meantime, you better be careful. I'm getting readings of a powerful enemy in the area."

"Do you know what it is?"

"Let me see..." He squinted his eyes and zoomed in on the map, tapping on the keyboard vigorously as he tried to get any sort of visual of the area. With the sandstorm, it was hard to make out anything, but he could faintly spot the silhouette of a male walking among the dunes. "A swordsman. I suggest you and your units stay close with your division until reinforcements arrive.

"Thanks a lot." Karl said in the usual calm tone he recognized. "I'll be sure to... * _bzzzt* an eye- *bzzt*"_ The transmission quickly degraded into static as Karl's voice dimmed to nothing more but indecipherable gibberish.

 _"_ Hey, Karl?"

The communications were unfortunately cut due to the ever growing sandstorm.

"Drat. I guess I better see what i can't do."

He began to go through the process of contacting the Administration and connecting with the Logistics Support Department to fulfill Karl's request. There were many missions conducted by the hall, and with the number of groups out on the field, the Logistics Division would certainly be working on overtime. Some calls would be sent to him in the likelihood if all the lines were full back at the Summoners hall, which makes his job all the more vexing. Still, this was what he did best, providing assistance and monitoring missions at a distance, and helped document any reports based on their findings, or at least he tried to.

Just as he finished his task, a sudden beep from a computer caught his attention. He looked at the map once more, it detected some new activity going on in the Kagan Desert. "The readings are off the charts... what's going on?" He wondered as he began to examine his computer. Visuals were no longer possible, but a red dot indicated the location of the activity. The readings were very similar to the gates the summoners used from the Summoners Hall in Elgaia to Grand Gaia, although the sudden appearance made this all the more suspicious. _Certainly, this wasn't one of ours._ He thought. For sure he can't contact Karl as of now due to the sandstorm, all he could do at the present moment was to observe what he could and see what happens next.

* * *

 **And I am back! Sorry for the late update. University is pretty taxing at the moment, and assignments continue to take up my time. That, and accompanied with the fact that I** **didn't know how I** **was going to go with the situation I** **would make for the NPCs, so that also contributed to the problem. And yes, I just made Valerie speed run through the entire continent, you can thank the group for that. What do you guys think of the chapter? I honestly think I could do a little better with this, but with my brain's not in the best state, this was what I could do. Starting the next chapter I begin Morgan, after I introduce the next summoned unit that is.**

 **Also, I'm thinking of changing the title before writing the next chapter, I think the one I'm using now is a bit generic and similar with other fanfic titles in this community with similar premises. For any inquiry on that, let me know by PM.**

 **As for the unidentified character on the last bit, I plan for him to get more involved with the story later on. As to what kind of role he will play, well, I'll see how it goes.**

 **(Update - October 26 - I'm going to polish up on the earlier chapters before beginning the next one. This is to see if there are any errors or inconsistencies with the story. If it looks like some of the chapters are subtly different, then you'll know why.)**

 **(Update - November 4 - Chapters have been polished. Some details on previous chapters have been changed slightly, but not in a way that it's completely different but subtle enough that it still stays true to the plot.**

 **(Update - November 9 - Title of story and Summary changed.**


	22. Chapter 17: Fourth Summon, and Lectures

_Not this again..._ James thought as he floated around in the familiar void. The first time he was in there, it came as a surprise. Now, he was accustomed to it. Once again he couldn't feel anything, all his senses were numb, and he had no clue as to where he was going. Tilith said that Lucius was going to talk to me, but where is he? As if on cue, a bright light filled the room with a loud boom. The blinding light made it hard to see, as usual. Lucius began to introduce himself again.

 _"I am Lucius... God of this Gate..."_

James mentally cringed at the repetitive introduction. Is he going to be like this every time I meet him? He wondered.

 _"Savior of St. Lamia... Use my power and venture into new lands... Move forth and use your power to bring peace to this world..."_ It was a cliched spiel one would expect out of an adventure story, but now he was on the receiving end. He did not want to complain, it was not like he could talk back to the deity anyway. All he could do at the moment was let things take its course.

Without a moment's hesitation, the bright light began to intensify, leaving James with an incredibly vague hint of what he needed to do as the darkness around him turned to white.

...

"Is he really going to be okay?" Ardin asked the Goddess.

"Of course he is!" Tilith exclaimed. "If he could survive fighting the Juggernaut, then this is just a walk in the park!"

"I don't know which is dumber, the way you are overly cheerful about everything or the fact you know most of the phrases humans say."

The Goddess pouted. "Are you trying to make fun of me?!"

Tora giggled at their banter while Vargas continued to check up on his summoner. After a few minutes of pointless arguing, James began to groan and he slowly opened his eyes. "Hey, guys! he's awake!" Vargas shouted, prompting the two to stop.

Tilith ran up to him and knelt beside him. "So, how was your meeting with Lord Lucius?" she asked in the same cheerful tone she always had.

James rubbed his head and allowed himself to take a few seconds to adjust himself back into reality. "Honestly? I don't mean to offend anyone, but it was no different than the first time I met him."

Tilith tilted her head in confusion. "And what is that supposed to mean?"

"It felt... what's the word? 'Tedious'."

Tilith lightly slapped him on the back of his head, the shock gave him enough energy to fully awaken.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"How dare you make fun of Lord Lucius!" She shouted, she had an angry look on her face, but it seemed more comical to him than intimidating.

"I said didn't mean to offend." James sighed as he rubbed the spot on his neck where he was slapped. "I'm sorry, okay?"

Tilith mellowed down a little. "I know you weren't, but that is still a little rude. And what's with you saying 'sorry' all the time?"

"Does it look like I like being slapped everywhere?"

"Good point."

James took a moment to look at his surroundings. One thing immediately stood out: They were outside but in a completely different location. It didn't take him long to figure out where the group is now. "We're in Morgan, are we?"

Tilith nodded. "Yes! After you defeated the Juggernaut, the way to Morgan had opened!" She looked towards the scenery ahead of her. "It goes without saying that this region is well known for their scenery, but..."

"Then Maxwell took it."

She nodded again. "Just because we managed to get through one region, it will only get difficult from here on out. The monsters here are stronger than the ones from before."

James nodded as well. "Duly noted. I will keep that in mind."

A long uncomfortable silence filled the air until Ardin spoke up. "So... about your explanation..."

A hush once again fell over the group, they knew what Ardin was going to ask him. James sighed as he slowly got up. "You mean the sudden display of power earlier?"

"Yeah."

James sighed, taking a few moments to collect himself. "That is... something I can't fully explain."

"How so?"

"Mainly because I have no clue where it came from. The times I used them sometimes result in exhaustion."

"Just like in Egor?" asked Tilith.

"Yeah. I have yet to properly train myself in using my abilities yet, so I try not to use it too much. Collapsing randomly out in the battlefield would be very detrimental."

"Is there any other tricks you could do? Other than moving faster and powering up?" Vargas wondered.

"I honestly don't know. So far I could do those, but I honestly don't know what else I could do."

"Then that makes things all the more interesting!" Vargas grinned. Ardin remained silent, but his expression mellowed a little. It appeared that he seemed satisfied with the answers, for now. Tora in the meantime remained clueless, having not been there to see James' other exhibition, but she simply let things take their course. After all was said and done, James looked over to the small pouch he held his gems in. "Do you feel like summoning now?" Asked Tilith.

He nodded. "Yeah. Since we are entering a new region, we need to take precaution. We need all the help we can get, right?"

Heading out to a clearing, he began the summoning ritual once again. Much like what happened last time, a rainbow colored gate stands before him. "Wow!" Tilith clapped. "You're really getting good at this!" James did not share the same enthusiasm as her but was still surprised nonetheless. This is the second time I get this, maybe I'm just that lucky... He thought as he watched the gate burst open, awaiting whoever would emerge from it.

"Thanks for summoning me! Just you wait! I'll be your strength!" A male voice called out with eagerness in his voice. Standing before the group was a red haired male. He donned a pair of greaves, vambraces and shoulder guards that all bore a similar color scheme: the typical silver shine accompanied with gold trimmings. On his head, he wore what appeared to be a circlet and a flowing white cape. Given his appearance, he looked rather youthful, though James could tell this man was at least a few years his senior, maybe more. "If I'm here, that means I was summoned. So, who summoned me?" He asked. Instinctively, the other units and Tilith all pointed to James, who simply stood there. "Do you mind if you introduced yourself?" He asked.

"Sure! My name is Krantz, a member of the Akras Summoners Hall!" He replied with a smile. Despite his predicament as a unit, he did not seem vexed about it. What really got him intrigued was the affiliation he stated he was from. The Akras Summoners Hall, the 'Summoner' part reminded him of Karl, whom he had suspected to be one with his greater understanding of the units and the summoning art in general. Perhaps he came from the same group as Krantz? His thoughts were soon interrupted as Krantz began to ask. "So, what division are you? Demon Slayer? Maybe the Regular Army?" He was not aware of the system of the hall, given the fact as he is not part of it. "I am... not with the Summoners Hall," James replied.

"Oh." Krantz raised an eyebrow. "Then maybe you are a freelancer?"

"I suppose you can call me that."

Krantz scrutinized James for a bit before looking to Tilith. "I haven't seen her before. Is she a new unit?"

"I-I'm not a unit!" She snapped back, albeit a little flustered.

James sighed. "It's a long story, You see..." He began to tell Krantz the numerous situations he and his units had went through, from the Adventurers Plain to their recent assault on the Tower of Mistral. The details seemed rather dubious until he divulged their indirect encounter with Maxwell and the subsequent victory against the Juggernaut. The credibility of the evidence he presented was still a little spotty but was clear enough to arouse curiosity. "So... what you're saying is, the Gods are planning for another attack, is that it?"

"This is what I think, based on what I saw. Currently, we are about to travel to a new region to find Maxwell's whereabouts."

"You do know you're going against the Gods, right?" Krantz stated. "Don't you think you need to tell the Summoners Hall about this?"

James shook his head. "I doubt they would believe someone who is not with their ranks, especially if they happen to have the same capability as their own, and one of their units being a former member of theirs no less." He replied.

"But still, don't you think you should try?"

James thought for a second. "I did see one person that I believe was part of this Demon Slayers division you mentioned, however, I'm not entirely sure where he is at the moment."

"Perhaps that person can help?"

"Maybe, Though I still don't believe that this could work."

"Don't be so negative!" Tilith pounced the summoner from behind. "Everything will be alright!"

"She's right, you know," Krantz added. "They aren't that strict. Besides, this is still something that they should be notified about, after all, why else do you think we summoners are able to get through the gates in the first place?"

His question had clicked into place, especially when considering Tiliths previous statement of other 'chosen ones'. "...By Lucius' help." James answered.

"Now you get it!" Krantz smiled. "I suggest we get prepared before we start our survey, yeah?"

"That was just about what I was going to say!" Tilith chimed in. "I should also get going, once you get back, we can get started!" James nodded and saw her off. "You know the drill, let's head back." The group nodded and walked over towards the gate that stood nearby the group and made their way back to the Village.

...

Immediately after setting foot under the archway, James turned to his units. "I will prepare the necessary supplies needed, in the meantime, just wait for me, okay?"

"You sure you'll be fine?" Krantz asked. "I can help you with the process to make things faster."

James shook his head. "It's alright, I want the group to get to know you before we head out. It should make things easier." And with that, he walked Synthesis house to craft some supplies, leaving the others to their own devices.

Krantz scrutinized the group for a few seconds before speaking up. "You two I don't seem to recognize," he said, pointing to Tora and Ardin.

Ardin raised an eyebrow. "Do you have some sort of problem with that?"

"No, I don't!" he raised his hands up in an apprehensive manner. "It's just that I haven't seen the two of you before." _I guess there were more units discovered over the years._ He thought. _How interesting._

Ardin sighed. "I'm Ardin, not sure what to say about myself, really." he introduced himself with an uncaring tone.

"M-My name is Tora" The disciple bowed. "It's nice to meet you..."

"A disciple..." Krantz muttered as he examined her, which made her all the more nervous.

"She's fine." Vargas chimed in. "She is not the most social, but she won't hurt you."

"I'll take your word for it then." Krantz nodded. "So, how long have you three been with him?"

Ardin spoke up. "About a few days, with Tora being the latest to join before you did. It's not long, but it's long enough that we tend to get into crazy situations like these nowadays."

"Aha. Though, I'm curious, what do you know about your summoner?"

"Other than the fact that he can fight, not so much." Chimed in Vargas. "Though, he is actually quite nice, despite what his appearance shows."

"Oh?" Krantz wondered. "What did he do?"

Vargas grinned back. "There was that one time he helped Tora with her anxiety. You should have seen it, it was pretty heartwarming." This prompted Tora to blush slightly and looking down in embarrassment.

Krantz seemed intrigued. "That sounds nice."

"Then there was that one time he made Ardin attack him just moments after summoning him." This caused Ardin to cringe at the memory, Krantz also did the same. "H-He did? Well, that's very unexpected."

Ardin sighed. "He has his way of doing things, I suppose I can't blame him if he just wanted to get it over with."

Krantz took a moment to process all the information given to him, looking more curious all the while. "I had never seen interactions with units in such a way," He said. "Actually, now that I think about it, I haven't seen interactions between summoner and units at all." The comment sparked interest among the other units, who all turned to him. "What do you mean?" Tora inquired.

"Back in my days as a summoner, I remember the units not being able to talk at all." He stated. "There were a few cases where summoners possessed units that could talk, though no one is sure how that happens." This explanation came as quite a revelation to all the units, including Krantz. The fact they could talk and were able to act on their own accord was a testament that their summoner may very well be one of those cases. "Since you were a summoner, what units did you used to have?" Ardin asked.

Krantz took a moment to try to collect his thoughts but sighed. "Unfortunately, I can't seem to remember them. It's been quite a long time."

"I see." An awkward silence filled the air, none of the units had a clue how they could continue to pass the time while their summoner continued his preparations. It was at that point Vargas decided to figuratively reignite the conversation. "You should have seen the crazy things we did during our time in Mistral." he grinned.

Krantz's eyes widened. "Oh? What happened?"

The conversation suddenly shifted over to Vargas recollecting the few rivalry sessions between him and Ardin, detailing the numerous competitions they had on the side as the latter simply leaned back and let Vargas ramble on. Some of the details prompted Krantz to laugh at the hilarity of some of the moments Vargas had told, with Tora giggled along with him. The atmosphere became lighthearted, which perfect for raising the squad's morale considering they were about to venture into a new region.

...

James in the meantime was still in the middle of preparing supplies for the next mission. He had already finished transferring karma into the machine and crafted enough consumables to help them get through the first few areas. He felt relieved that he was able to cheat out of that conversation from earlier. Well, "cheat" was not the best term to describe it. It was a stroke of luck that Ardin inquired only about his abilities. Still, the subject of his powers was not easy to answer, even if was honest about it, but it was certainly easier than the other question he could have asked. Specifically, that 'Ulterior motive' the Juggernaut called him out on. No doubt that thought is still present in all the units heads, save for Krantz. Ardin's unnerving silence from earlier suggested that he still remembers it, but simply withheld that information. He did not know why he chose to do so right now, the summoner surmised that he probably did so as to not waste everyone's time. Still, the possibility of having that question handed over to him in the future was viable. If this came to light, then... _No, not now_. He pushed that thought aside, knowing that dwelling on it will only cause problems and make it difficult for him to maintain his cover. He had to focus on the main task at hand. The more evidence he could gather about Grand Gaia, the better.

He stood inside the sphere house, thinking of crafting a few to see if he could enhance his units' capabilities. Heeding Tilith's warning earlier, he figured that this was the most logical approach. One could never be too prepared. He looked over a list of items to see what spheres he could forge. 'Famous Blade Giant Shield, White Cane, and Spirit Armor.' Beside each name, there was a short summary of what kind of enchantments they provided, such as the Famous Blade raising a unit's offensive parameters while the Giant Shield raises one's defense. The Spirit Armor had the uncanny function of "aiding one's endurance", something that sounded both interesting and odd at the same time. The way each sphere functioned felt rudimentary, though what enchantments the last sphere brought somewhat puzzled him. The White Cane raised something called 'recovery'." James surmised that recovery meant that it related to the potency of healing on a unit.

All things considered, it sounded beneficial for survivability, and each sphere had its own merits. Though they would definitely draw out more potential in his squad if they were assigned correctly, he had to consider each unit's ability before equipping spheres randomly. Ardin specialized in heavy hitting, but also provides elemental bonuses to attack. He should be a viable candidate for the sword. Vargas had the same tactic, but he is, from Karl's standpoint, of a lower class than the others given his current form. He thought of giving the Spirit Armor to him to help Vargas gain more survivability. Tora specialized in ailment infliction, but he figured that she may need the added defense in case she is the one targeted, magic does take some time to prepare after all. That left Krantz, whose abilities he had yet to figure out yet. All the other spheres were assigned, so the White cane had to go to him.

Crafting spheres took just as long as synthesizing items, five different spheres were laid out on the table in front of him in mere seconds. They were all green, much like the materials that were used in crafting them, but each individual sphere had a distinct marking that helped set them apart. Upon closer inspection, he felt a faint power emanating off of them. He looked at a small screen mounted on the wall that acted as a database that detailed the current spheres that could be crafted, all of them were designated as one-star spheres. _Much like the units, even these spheres have their own groups._ He thought. _I'd best be going, I can't let them wait any longer._ He kept this curious thought to himself as he left the sphere house and rejoined his units.

"That took you long enough," Vargas called out to his summoner. "What kept you?"

"I had a few more things to take care of," James replied, holding out one of the spheres, which caught the attention of Krantz. "You certainly know the basics." He said. "I'm glad to know you are on top of things." The summoner merely shook his head. "I'm only doing what's necessary, it's nothing special. By the way, How do these spheres work?"

Krantz chuckled. "Ah, I see you haven't learned what these do. Each unit can hold only one at a time. However, there is a way that they can handle two, but I guess my memory isn't in the best condition right now."

"I see, so how do these things exactly work? Through absorption or somewhere along those lines?"

"Something like that. Give it a try." At Krantz's request, James handed each sphere to his units. Upon contact with them, they dematerialized into sparkles of light in which were absorbed by the units. Their bodies emitted a faint green glow similar to the spheres they absorbed for a brief moment before it faded away. Outwardly, there appeared to be no different, but each of them did feel slightly stronger in various ways. "You're pretty good for a rookie." he complimented James, placing a hand on his shoulder a a sign of his approval.

'Rookie'.

Normally, one would feel slightly offended to be addressed as such, but James was not most people. His inquiries and the way he was attentive to otherwise rudimentary tips certainly showed his inexperience, even now he still has yet to understand the concept of the way summoning works in this world. As mundane as the second round of lessons was, he needed all the insight and experience as he could if it could help get through his mission quicker. "Thanks," he replied, looking relaxed as usual. "Now, let's get going. The Goddess is waiting." Krantz grinned at how dutiful his summoner was, but the rest all knew why he wanted to depart from the village so quickly.

They followed summoner through the archway and towards the nearby gate to be transported to the cliffs they were at just moments before. They stood at the mountain trail leading to a desert up ahead, the warm winds could be felt even from their location, which sent a shiver down Tora and Ardin's spine. James looked back to his squad. "Is everyone ready? We can take a few more minutes to relax."

Ardin shook his head. "I'm good to go."

Vargas gave a thumbs up. "Ready when you are.

Tora clutched her dagger tightly before looking up with determined eyes. "I-I'm ready!"

James looked to Krantz last, who responded with a nod. "Just say the word."

"Alright then. Let's rendezvous with the Goddess." At his command, the units trailed behind him as they proceeded to enter the desert. Preparations were finished, the continent of Morgan awaits.

* * *

 **Back again after God knows how long and with another chapter, and a new member joins our merry band. Huzzah! If the quality and/or length of this chapter was not as well as the previous ones, then I apologize. University work, that holiday project I did a few months back and several instances of laziness mixed with lack of motivation all contributed to the delay. As usual, reviews are appreciated and I'll do my best improve on the next chapter. Hopefully, the delays won't be as long next time.**


	23. Chapter 18: Priorities

_"Kagan Desert"_

The name of the region the squad was about to set foot into as notified by a wooden sign they passed. Upon entering, they were greeted by hot winds blowing at their faces, carrying grains of sand that would make it more difficult to keep their eyes open. These winds were only momentarily, however, but they would pick up every now and then, albeit in various forces ranging from a light breeze to strong gales. Overall, the climate was unsurprisingly arid and hot. In comparison to the Cave of Flames back in Mistral, Kagan was more tolerable given the fact they were outside, but having sand nearly blind them did not make the situation any better. Having already passed through hot areas like this before, Vargas and Ardin seemed well accustomed to it. Krantz too did not feel a thing, thanks to the light gear he had on, while James once again showed an impassive expression on the climate. The only one who was not doing so well was Tora, who looked rather exhausted, no doubt she was not accustomed to such conditions like the others. It was at this point Krantz decided to speak up. "I know another trick you can try, which can make things easier for all of us."

"Hmm?" James felt curious. "What is this trick?"

Krantz smiled before performing a quick lecture. "As a summoner, you can also call back your units and have them on standby. This should help in case we end up in places like these or if you don't want to waste too much energy. To summon and keeping units anchored in their physical form does require a lot out of the user."

He understood that much, if his past experiences in summoning were anything to go by. Thinking about it, he found some benefits to this, especially if it concerned situations requiring stealth. "I see, can you elaborate on how I can do it?" he inquired.

"It's simple, really. All you need to do is say the word, let your powers do the rest."

James nodded and closed his eyes. "Fine then. Everyone, standby." Upon his command, his units quickly disappeared in a flash in less than a second, leaving only the summoner.

 _"For a fledgling summoner, you are really getting the hang of this!"_ Said the disembodied voice of Krantz.

James remained calm, unsurprised by this. "I am going to assume that as a summoner I also have some form of mental communication with my units, correct?" he muttered quietly while picking up his coat, not minding the fact he was coming off as talking to himself.

 _"Yes, you catch on quickly."_

 _"Whoo! I needed a few minutes to relax. My feet are a bit sore."_ Said Vargas, who communicated in the same manner as Krantz.

 _"Phew."_ Tora sighed with relief. _"It was too hot out there..."_

 _"I suppose this also saves me the trouble of dealing with sand in my armour,"_ spoke Ardin.

James himself also felt a little more at ease. He did not take notice of the changes until now. Even if he did not feel that much strain from doing so these past few days, he felt a rather noticeable difference after having called them back. With that out of the way, he began walking around the desert to find any trail that might help him lead towards the next area.

...

So far there was nothing out of the ordinary. The sight was typical for a desert, an endless sea of sand with a few cacti strewn about along with the occasional skeletal remains of some unfortunate soul who had long perished here. He had yet to encounter any monster, considering the setting, there would still be some that would claim regions like this home. This, accompanied with the possibility of the sand dunes acting like some form of shelter or hiding spot for a possible ambush kept the summoner on high alert. He would continue walking around until he happened upon an unexpected sight. Small burnt craters littered the scene before him, some bloodstains dried up in the desert sun were scattered all over the place as well as a few broken or discarded weapons. All of these were definite signs of a struggle. Upon closer inspection at one sword, he noticed how different in quality it was. The simple yet clean design definitely did not belong to something like a bandit. In fact, some of the other weapons laying around were of similar design.

 _"These are... from the summoner's hall..."_ Krantz said, who recognized the weaponry. The tone of his voice reflected his horror to the scene.

 _Could these have been part of Karl's division?_ Was the first thing he thought. He looked towards the distance, to what barely looks like a group of people ahead of him, but the hot air rising from the sand made it difficult to say for sure. Just as he was about to make his first step, he was immediately halted by a small salvo of magical projectiles. He quickly rolled to the side to dodge and raised his revolver to counter-attack. He fired once, but the bullet was quickly cut down by a knight donned in armour made of what appeared to be ice. He stopped the blade with his hands as the knight swung down on him. He was able to hold his ground, but as the blade also seemed to be made of ice, much like his armour, he found it slightly difficult to hang on as his hands started to feel numb upon contact.

"Who's there?" a voice called out.

James recognized the voice quickly and called back. "Karl?"

"James? Stand down, everyone." He instructed. His units promptly stopped attacking and backed away, leaving the two summoners to converse. "Sorry about that, I thought you were trying to ambush us."

"It's fine, though to be fair, your units attacked first." He looked to the distance to see the members of Karl's group, who were still recuperating. "I presume your group encountered that demon you were looking for?"

Karl sighed, his expression shifted to that of concern. "Unfortunately. It's fortunate that they are still hanging on, Exvehl managed to heal most of their wounds." He motioned to the unit that vaguely looked draconic or horse-like in appearance. "Still, There are still some unaccounted for."

"I see. What about Seria?"

"We were performing a survey in this region when a sandstorm separated us. I can only hope that she and her squad is also safe. As much as I want to go out and perform a search, I have to stay with them until reinforcements arrive to pick them up."

James looked at the sandy terrain ahead of him before replying. "If I ever do see her, I will be sure to inform her of the situation."

His instincts advised him against the idea. Still, given the circumstances, he was in no situation to go himself. He thought of this as testing the man's credibility. "Thanks, I owe you one." Just then, he remembered something. "By the way, was someone was looking for you?"

"Someone was looking for me?" He wondered, showing his confusion. "Who was it?"

"A young woman by the name of Valerie," Karl replied. "She said she was a friend of yours."

At the mention of the name, James tensed up. There was an uncomfortable silence from James before he spoke again. "Where did you see her last? Was anyone with her?"

"She was passing by Breeze Beach, which is up ahead. And I think she was on her own when I saw her. Is there something wrong?"

Internally, James was feeling concern. _It's no surprise she would follow me here... but by herself? What is she thinking?_ He did his best to keep his composure. "This explains where she was... I hope she isn't going through too much trouble..." he mutters out loud, inadvertently capturing the attention of the blue-haired summoner.

"She must be very special to you if you came all the way out here to find her." Karl smiled, keeping his priorities of questioning him at the back of his mind for the time being.

James was a bit hesitant with his reply. "Yes... You can say that. I apologize for leaving like this, but I need to find her. I wish your squad a swift recovery."

"Thank you, and be careful out there."

Both summoners waved to each other before James walked off further into the desert, leaving Karl to tend to his downed squad.

 _Maybe that's why he's here._ Karl speculated. _But still, why would they show up in Grand Gaia of all places? What is going on around here?_

Sergio walked up to his summoner, his attention directed to where the man had left. "Are you sure letting him go was a good idea?"

"I think we should at least give him a chance to prove himself." He replied, looking in the same direction.

"And if he proves to be an enemy?"

"Then we leave that to Seria." He could not help but cringe a little at the thought. Capable as she was, he still felt a little concerned, given her streaks of aggression. He was not sure who to worry about more.

The knight simply nodded and returned to guarding the downed summoners along with Exvehl, the trio waiting for reinforcements from the summoner's hall to arrive.

...

In a matter of minutes, James was at a distance where Karl and his units were no longer in clear sight. " _Weren't you going to notify him about our current situation?"_ Krantz inquired, noting that his summoner had left before mentioning the situation with the Gods. It was at this point James realized his folly, expressing it through a facepalm and a sigh. "I was caught up in another matter that I forgot about it. And it seems like Karl too has his own problems to deal with. Perhaps I will discuss this matter when we see him next time. Maybe then we both have fewer concerns to worry about."

 _"I will take your word for it. Also, you must be very worried about this 'Valerie', Karl was quick to notice it too."_

James gave a brief pause before replying with, "This isn't the best time or place to bring up that conversation." The second he finished talking, he quickly turned towards one of the nearby sand dunes. For a second, he spotted a couple of mounds moving in the sand around it. "We have company." Several monsters emerged from the sand, goblins similar to the ones encountered in the Cave of Flames, and an unfamiliar dog-like creature with two heads and a serpentine tail.

" _Goblins and Orthos,"_ Vargas noted. _"Now would be a good time to summon us, yeah?"_

James sensed a stronger energy from the monsters, one of a greater concentration than the ones in Mistral. Despite this, it was not enough to pose too much of a threat. He could easily dispatch them on his own, but his intuition told him that allowing the units to fight would help give them more experience. "Vargas, Ardin, Tora, Krantz. Let's get to work." At his command, four magic circles appeared on the ground, a brief but bright flash heralded their arrival as they quickly materialized onto the desert ground, weapons at their ready.

Ardin looked at the creatures as he assumed a fighting stance. "This is going to be fun," he said.

Krantz looked to his summoner. "These enemies are fire elemental, I suggest you pay more attention to Tora."

He remembered the elemental wheel, in this case, fire having an advantage over earth elemental units. He remembered giving Tora the defence-oriented "Giant Shield" sphere, it would help reduce damage from the enemy, but there was still no guarantee that it would keep her going for long. "Duly noted." The summoner replied, taking out his knife. "Everyone, advance!" He uttered the command, and the squad began to charge at the enemy.

It did not matter that the terrain was different than the previous regions they explored, the enemies were easily dispatched with little effort. James and Ardin swiftly cut down a pack of Orthos that emerged from the sand, while Vargas shouted at a small group of goblins, distracting them to allow Krantz and Tora to attack them from behind. The group held their ground, but the enemy numbers steadily began to increase, this time with the addition of copies of a certain witch and bandit the group encountered previously. "So they do know we were coming..." said Vargas as he blocked a fireball.

Tora jumped out of the way to dodge an Orthos pouncing at her. "Y-You don't think someone is... controlling them?" she wondered.

James took a glance towards Ardin. "Fly up and see if you can't find their ringleader."

With a nod, Ardin spread his wings and flew straight up to get a better look on the battlefield. Other than sand as far as the eyes could see, he could notice more and more monsters surrounding the party from all sides, suddenly surfacing from the sand. However, another crowd was amassed not too far from what they were, within the gap stood what appeared to be a swordsman clad in heavy armour brandishing a broadsword. It was not just some simple ambush, it was a planned out coordinated attack. At that moment, the mages began to cast fireballs at the demigod, forcing him to dive back to his comrades. "We have a group closing in!" He informed his summoner.

"How big?"

"A brigade of monsters led by some knight, they're trying to outnumber us."

The number of enemies around them began to dwindle as the enemy horde slowly came into view, the summoner was left to make a quick decision. He began to look around to see what he could use to his advantage, but all he could see were sand dunes. Then it hit him. "Everyone, take shelter in the dunes. We can try to hide there and use the element of surprise against them."

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Krantz questioned the summoner, finding the idea to be somewhat dubious.

"I-In there?" Tora stuttered, feeling similarly uncomfortable with the idea.

"I don't think we have a choice," Vargas replied. "Picking them off one by one would probably do better than just running head first"

"Look at you, being logical all of the sudden." Ardin quipped, which prompted Vargas to respond with an irritated expression. "Aren't you going to do the same?"

James looked back to see the small army closing in, "I'll distract them, all of you hide."

"A-Are you sure you are going to be okay?" Tora asked.

"As long as everything goes according to plan. Should the situation become dire, you could use your brave bursts."

The units nodded and proceeded to scatter, taking refuge in the dunes. James remained out in the open, his knife still in hand.

The brigade eventually arrived at the group's location, a small number of monsters began to part in order to allow the knight leading them to step forward. The knight had an assertive aura similar to that of a general, a quality very befitting judging by his appearance. Given the numerous situations that he had already experienced throughout his experiences in Grand Gaia, he surmised that this knight was a soldier of Maxwell. "I take it you are the summoner I have heard so much about?" The knight asked.

"And if I was?" answered James, who still kept a firm grip on his knife.

The knight took a step forward. "I wish to duel with the one who managed to slay the Juggernaut. I want to see that Summoner's prowess first hand."

"And if I refuse?"

"You will not be able to cross Kagan otherwise." He stretched his arm out to make the summoner shift his attention toward the setting. "Monsters lurk within the sand, all of whom are under my command." The Knight stated frankly. "However, if you can prove your strength and defeat me, I will grant you and your group access. Is that fair?"

James thought for a moment. Given that the knight was working with the enemy, he was not sure if this Knight was going to honour the conditions. Regardless, the only way they would advance is if he accepted the knight's about it, he could use the battle to his advantage to distract the other monsters for the other units to make their surprise attack. The summoner gave the knight a simple nod." I accept your challenge, Knight."

"Excellent." The knight enthused. The monsters began to circle around the two and formed a large wide ring around them, giving the combatants ample room to fight. Some of the other monsters were left to scout the area, possibly searching for the units. The way they were organized was almost as if it was premeditated. The knight raised his sword up as a form of salute before introducing himself. "I am Agni, former Imperator and in service to Lord Maxwell."

Given the approach the knight was taking, he felt as though he would have to introduce himself as well. But he opted not to and simply bowed to the knight to show his respect before raising his knife up and adopts a fighting stance, Agni did the same.

"Are you not going to use your sword? A weapon such as that will not do anything against me." The tone of his voice did not show any condensation, rather, it almost sounded concerned. James replied with silence, gesturing Agni to have the first move. "Then show me that prowess of yours!" He shouted. With a flourish, he lunged towards the summoner. Despite the heavy armour he sported, he moved with great speed, quickly closing the distance between them and swung horizontally. James ducked and weaved under the blade, avoiding the strike before immediately countering with a quick swing of his own. He managed to nick Agni's forearm, but his gauntlets protected him from being hit and showed no signs of damage whatsoever. He lunged at Agni again, narrowly avoiding another swing. This time, he managed to find a small breach in his armour at his joints and delivers a small cut before backing away. The knight grinned under his helmet. "Impressive speed. But can you handle this?" Flames erupted from his sword as he charged in with a thrust. James rolls to the side and lunged again, this time not managing to hit an exposed areas. However, he was quick enough to follow up with a hard kick to Agni's abdomen, causing the knight to stagger back towards the boundary the monster's made. This was not the fight he was expecting, but the skill the summoner had clearly was showing. _The armour he is wearing seems to cover up most of his body._ James thought as he cartwheeled to the side to avoid another thrust. _If I could tire him out, it would make finding the weak spots easier._ He lunged forward and began to assault the General with a series of swings and kicks, taking a more aggressive stance to try to see who would tire first.

Sparks flew with every parry they made. The monsters around them began to go into an uproar, evidently enthralled by the duel as they cheered for their superior's victory. Meanwhile, not too far from the makeshift arena, some of the monsters began to patrol the surrounding area. Given Ardin's reconnaissance earlier, they were aware that the other members were not too far. Using the large dunes to their advantage, the units carefully tracked each monster. Much to their fortune, they were not large in number compared to the ones currently distracted by the duel, and groups were limited to about one to three in search parties.

Vargas quickly ran up to one goblin and proceeded to knock it out with a swift strike of the pommel, Ardin took a similar approach with the addition of dispatching a few burnies with a quick draw of his katana before retreating back into the sand. Tora, on the other hand, chose to go for a different method, feeling uncomfortable of performing sneak attacks. Picking up a nearby rock, she tossed it somewhere in the distance, hoping that this could lure some monsters away from the vicinity. Surprisingly, the idea worked as a couple of Orthos picked up the sound and promptly began to head over to where the rock had landed. Krantz also took a different role, opting to perform a little reconnaissance to find any nearby monsters and quietly relayed to the others on their location. The plan was working well, the enemy numbers slowly dwindling as they are either knocked unconscious or lured away from the scene.

That was... until the sound of a faint whistling broke the mood.

* * *

 **Authors note:  
It's about time this was finished! I cannot help but think there are a lot of mistakes in there somewhere, I really wanted to get this out of the way as soon as possible. If you do find some, don't hesitate to let me know. University work and writer's block were the culprits for the most part, but my boredom and lack of motivation to write also came into play. Next time, I shouldn't be making predictions of when I may finish something; and for that, I sincerely apologize. I will most likely do some polishing in early chapters before working on the next chapter. So, for the time being, This is Some Wandering Anon, signing off.**


End file.
